Language Overview

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C

C++

C#

Microsoft has always had a love/hate relationship with Java. Here was a language that many programmers at

Here's a snippet from an article that appreared in Forbes (August 25, 1997):

Didn't I know of Lisp, Smalltalk, Ada, and all the other "revolutionary" languages that claimed to enhance programmer productivity? Java is the same, he said. "It's the Monkees," said Simonyi, referring to the rock group that briefly posed as American Beatles. "They had a few hits and then disappeared. Java will be the same. It will be totally forgotten. Microsoft is the Beatles."

Java

Object Pascal

Python

REALBasic

Visual Basic

 

Backpedalling with .NET

On garbage collection

Consider what Nathan Myhrvold (former VP of Advanced Technology at MS) and Charles Simonyi (Will JAVA Break Windows? Forbes, August 25, 1997. (see page 2 of the online version)

Myhrvold declared that measured by lines of code, software had advanced just as fast as hardware and had taken advantage of every hardware gain. Java's claim of automatic memory management--"so-called garbage collection"--is empty, he asserted.

Microsoft has explored the issue at length over the years. Memory management might work in an applet, but it will not scale to a large program. It will break down. Claims of large gains in programmer output are "pure baloney," Myhrvold said.

On software components that work across the 'net

Simonyi chimed in to deny Java's claims to have solved the problems of programming component software--systems that could be put together like Lego blocks. "These problems have not even been solved at Microsoft, in one company," Simonyi says. "How could anyone solve it across the Net?"

 

Further Reading

General

The Great Computer Language Shoot-out

Ted Shieh's Programming Language Comparison

Jason Voegele's Programming Language Comparison

Programming Language Critiques

Fun With Computer Languages

Programming Languages as Cars

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

The ROT13 Page

Cameron Laird's Personal Notes on Programming Language Comparisons

 

Pascal

Why Pascal is not My Favorite Programming Language

 

Python

Python/Perl Phrasebook