[MUD-Dev] TECH: programming languages (was: Re: TECH: STL / Heaps, etc.)

[Brian Hook]

At 12:49 PM 8/13/01 -0700, Darklock wrote:

> Good taste. I always liked Objective-C, but it seems only about
> five out of a hundred developers have even HEARD of it, let alone
> USED it. So when I need to work with a team, Objective-C isn't
> usually an option.

For deployment, the choice of Objective-C is, um, questionable
because it requires a fairly comprehensive run-time environment.
However, for development of in house tools I can't see any
justification for NOT using OS X/Obj-C.

I'm a big enough fan of MacOS X and Cocoa (or, more accurately,
NextStep and the NS Framework) that I wouldn't hesitate to purchase
PowerMac G4 systems solely for tool deployment.  It's THAT good.
And yes, they're THAT much better than the equivalents out there.

Anyway, I don't mean this to be some advocacy rant, but for those
that are still developing tools using stone age crap like MFC/C++
and that have the ability to consider other platforms for tools, I
would highly, highly recommend examining Cocoa/MacOS X.  This isn't
a simple "20% better" situation -- this is several order of
magnitudes better, both in terms of access to technology (e.g. there
is an NSOpenGL view built into the frameworks) and the ability to
rapidly develop user interfaces (Interface Builder is extremely
impressive).  Not to mention that Objective-C (basically a C-syntax
variant of SmallTalk) is leagues beyond C++ or Java when it comes to
syntax, maintenance, readability and general OOP cleanliness (the
fact that Java FORCES integration of the interface and
implementation details is just mind bogglingly stupid).

There is a reason that a huge number of vertical market developemnt
houses (e.g. medical imaging, print press, financial analysis,
banking, etc.) used NextStep systems in the early-90s.  It was
technology that literally allowed developers to put together world
class, robust apps much quicker than the alternatives.

What is particularly amazing is that the object frameworks and
language used by NeXT over ten years ago is STILL better than the
most commonly deployed frameworks and languages in use today (MFC,
C++, STL, Java, AWT, Swing).

Okay, I'm done =)

Brian

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