[Info-vax] Viable versus ideal programming languages

[John Dallman]

In article <t1da72$59t$1 at dont-email.me>, davef at tsoft-inc.com (Dave Froble)
wrote:

> But what if one never intends to have transportable code? Then the 
> argument is meaningless, and, one should choose the language(s) 
> that best support the task(s) intended.

Indeed, but a decision to not have transportable code means that the
business that depends on the code dies if the platform it runs on dies.

At present, Microsoft Windows is the dominant platform on which the
product I work on is run by customers. Microsoft have suggested, several
times, that we should tie our development methods and implementations
much more closely to Windows. 

I've explained to them that there have been three "obviously correct"
platforms to tie ourselves to in the history of the product, those being,
in order, VMS (1985-92), HP-UX (1992-2003), and Windows (2003 to date).
If we had done that for either VMS or HP-UX, the business would now be
dead. The Microsoft people who suggest this have typically never heard of
VMS or HP-UX, which helps them appreciate the point that someday, there
will be another dominant platform. I don't know what it will be, but I'm
not prepared to bet my livelihood on Windows lasting forever.

John