[Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 08/03/2018 06:28 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 8/3/2018 8:32 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 08/02/2018 10:03 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>> On 8/2/2018 11:10 AM, Chris wrote:
>>>> Craftsmen like sharp tools and C is probably the sharpest tool
>>>> you can find anywhere for systems programming and embedded
>>>> systems work.
>>>
>>> Embedded is not really me, but I would expect the role
>>> of C to decline as many embedded systems get much more
>>> CPU and memory.
>>>
>>>>              Just have to be careful not to cut yourself
>>>> using it :-).
>>>
>>> Yep.
>>
>> We heard that when Ada came out.  While a lot of
>> embedded work moved to Ada C remained a mainstay.
>> I expect the same will be true for other languages.
>> As the amount of embedded increases other languages
>> may make an appearance, but not supplanting C, just
>> in addition to it.
> 
> C will certainly continue to be used.
> 
> And to clarify - by "role of C to decline" I only
> meant the percentage of embedded programs in C not the
> number of embedded programs in C.
> 
> But embedded with multi core SOC's and hundreds
> of MB of RAM gives more options.
> 
> C, C++ or Ada still provide easy HW access and
> good real time characteristics, so they will
> not go away.
> 

But this is the same logic used to "prove" the decline of
COBOL.  There is as much and likely considerably more
COBOL today than in the 90's and yet because other languages
are being used for mostly time wasters (you know, those apps
on your phone) the fact that COBOL is still used for some of
the most important aspects of business is ignored and we
are told COBOL is dead.

There may be a lot of garbage written in Java, PHP and
even Python, but OSes and, yes, compilers are still being
written in C.

bill