Re: ARPA still undermining Ada

[intros@cscns.com (Introspect Technologies)]

Bjarne Stroustrup <9758-26353> 0112760 (bs@research.att.com) wrote:

: intros@cscns.com (Introspect Technologies) writes

:  > Jay Martin (jmartin@oahu.cs.ucla.edu) wrote:
:  > : So what language does Stallman like?  Surely it is not brain-dead crap
:  > : like C,LISP and UNIX.  Inquiring minds want to know! Jay
:  > 
:  > [snip]
:  > RMS was quite contemptuous of C++ in his remarks.  He felt that C++ had
:  > some serious deficiencies.  G++ included some "fixes" but if the user
:  > wanted "standard" C++ features, they could invoke the "BS" switch.  RMS
:  > said that he had expressed his concerns to Bjarne but was told "If you
:  > think you can do it better, go ahead".  (Caveat: see above.)

: That description does not square with my recollection.

: [more snip]... I doubt the whole exchange lasted five minutes.

: Why do I bother commenting? After all, what rms and I said or didn't
: say to each other back in the dark ages can be of little interest today.
: However, the myths that seems to sourround every programming language
: tend to obscure the language itself to people with only casual acquaintance
: with it, and are seldom helpful to anyone. Sometimes - far too rarely -
: facts help avoid myths caused by random guessing about the reasons
: various things are the way they are.

: 	- Bjarne

Thanks for commenting.  I've often wondered what the exchange was really 
like.  There are always (at least) two perspectives to any event and, for 
the reasons you state, your perspective is valuable in helping the rest 
of us comprehend the dynamics of our computer community.

Douglas Arndt (member, Team Ada!)
Introspect Technologies, Inc.
PO Box 1135
Colorado Springs, CO  80901-1135
(719) 634-5744
(719) 634-1163 fax
intros@usa.net

--