For some while I've been kind of surprised, in a detached sort of way, at the general disregard that the FRIAMers I talk with hold for C++. One explanation that has been given me was "Well, C++ is prone to horrible memory management errors."
To which I respond: not if you code properly. And when you do make (the inetivable) memory allocation/deallocation/reference error, there are tools that will help you track the problem down posthaste. Valgrind, for example. Purify, for another. Another reason that has been repeatedly given for C++'s disfavor is, "It takes too long to develop C++ expertise." I guess I don't buy that either. I don't really think the level of expertise necessary to gain proficiency in C++ is all that much different that FORTRAN, Java, Pascal, LISP, or any other major language. I suppose I understand the FRIAM community's interest in Netlogo, but it still seems to me to be a "toy" language, in which you can develop small prototypes, but you can't scale a Netlogo application beyond serial computing environments. Translated: you can't develop interesting real world problem solutions in Netlogo. So, I guess it really doesn't surprise me much that Google picked the language set that they did, given the company's technology focus, and the collective power provided by that selection of languages. --Doug -- Doug Roberts, RTI International [email protected] [email protected] 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 5:33 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote: > The other day, I mentioned reading that Google had settled on 4 languages > for work inside the company. It occurred to me to look up the article. > Here it is: > http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rhino-on-rails.html > > They use C++, Java, Python, and JavaScript. > > Here's the quote: > One of the (hundreds of) cool things about working for Google is that they > let teams experiment, as long as it's done within certain broad and > well-defined boundaries. One of the fences in this big playground is your > choice of programming language. You have to play inside the fence defined by > C++, Java, Python, and JavaScript. > > It's sorta an interesting article. It's about how one sophisticated > engineer worked within these constraints to build a ruby on rails > environment using rhino, the java based javascript implementation. > > One reason we care about this is that the Google Ecology is becoming a > pretty interesting one for us (redfish and the complex). > > -- Owen > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
