"Nick Apperson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Reference counting and copy on write.
Do you know that there's much more to garbage collection than reference counting and that reference counting has some major drawbacks? There are even hard real time capable garbage collectors out there. > But I'll be damned if Java takes over the world because there are > programmers that don't know when they need to use garbage > collection. If you can't avoid memory leaks, fine, don't use C++ or > C, but don't blame the language. You could use garbage collection > if you need it; don't make us all stoop to your level of competency > and don't try and claim that your language is just as fast when it > isn't. You miss the point: Using languages with GC is not about programmers who can't avoid memory leaks. It's not about ability, it's about productivity. If the only reason you don't use assembler is that with C your code is easier to port to a new processor I think you won't understand, but there are languages that are *much* more expressive (in the sense that an problem/algorithm is much more compact and readable to write down) than C. Yes, this comes at a cost, but not a very high cost and on the pro side you have a (much?) higher productivity (and maybe even more maintainable code). Java and C# are not that interesting, but even as someone who really dislikes these languages one has to admit that the default libraries are a strong argument in favor of these platforms. I personally really like Common Lisp and if I try I get quite comparable performance to C (maybe 20-60% off). But I perceive the code so much more readable (and maintainance is very important to me), that other aspects lose in value. I don't use Common Lisp because I'm not capable to write error free C code. For me writing code in Common Lisp is the most natural way to express my thoughts to a computer, it's really fun. Performance is really an important aspect in developing software and should be considered from the very beginning on. But it's not the only important aspect (and the choice of the language is not the only way to influence the overall performance) and often it's hard to balance all these aspects and you have to make trade offs. All these trade offs have different pros and cons and in most cases the choice is not evident even for really brilliant people. So go on, try new languages, try new ways to express yourself and have fun. :) -- Until the next mail..., Stefan. _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list computer-go@computer-go.org http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
