Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.object
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!satisfied.elf.com!news.mathworks.com!uunet!rcm!rmartin
From: rmartin@rcmcon.com (Robert Martin)
Subject: Re: C++ Productivity
References: <1995Jan23.193745.7044@boole.com> <jim.fleming.84.00133AB6@bytes.com> 	<1995Jan25.201226.28856@rcmcon.com> <1995Jan26.150433@lglsun.epfl.ch> 	<1995Jan27.165208.5951@rcmcon.com> <DAVIDM.95Feb2103620@halfdome.prism.kla.com> <D3I8Fu.67H@syacus.acus.oz.au>
Organization: R. C. M. Consulting Inc. 708-918-1004
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 17:59:24 GMT
Message-ID: <1995Feb6.175924.17288@rcmcon.com>
Lines: 63
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.c++:111213 comp.lang.smalltalk:20421 comp.object:26233

ian@syacus.acus.oz.au (Ian Joyner) writes:

>Yes, this is true. However to answer Robert's assertion that engineers
>are free to explore other languages in another way: Those who bother
>to do so are often (metaphorically) spat on for suggesting such heresies,

Yes, I have been spat upon (metaphorically) before.  Once, was in 1986
when I suggested that the company I worked for should begin
investigating C++. 

>as C and C++ might be deficient, and there are other and better ways
>to do things. 

>Unfortunately, this makes most people feel they are not
>free to rock the boat against the religious fervour surrounding C and
>C++.

In 1978 I was working for a company that was using nothing but
assembly language.  I began to investigate C and Pascal.  I read K&R
and I read Wirth.  I decided that C would be more appropriate for my
company to use. (I won't expound upon my reasoning.)

Now, nobody told me I should do this.  I was 26 years old, and I felt
that our company had to move out of assembly language programming. 

I purchased a C compiler for $3,000.  I did not get approval.  I
simply signed the purchase requisition and put it through.  This was a
risk, and I knew that I could get my hands slapped, but I also knew
that I had to be able to produce evidence that C would be a good move.
And to do that, I had to have a compiler.  So I gambled.

I set up the compilation environment, and then began to use the
compiler for simple projects.  There were some startup problems, but
I was able to get things working pretty well.  At this point, I was
the only person in the company using C.

Once I got my project working, I began to prosthelytize (sp?).  I went
to other project leaders, showed them what I had done, and began
recommending that they use the language.  I met nearly insurmountable
resistance.  "C is too slow",  "C is not powerful enough, I need to
get to the real guts of the machine."  "I don't want to learn a new
language."  etc.

For nearly two years, I, and the small group of engineers working with
me, were the only C practitioners in the company.  But we were
succeeding with our projects.  The more success we experienced, the
more the resistance amongst the others diminished.  Eventually other
groups started using the language.  By 1982 we "standardized" upon C,
and brought in an instructor to teach everyone who had, so far, not
taught themselves.

I repeated this scenario some years later, at a different company,
with C++.  The same stragegy almost exactly.  Although this time I was
in a position to write purchase reqs without the need for approval.
Still, I was the only engineer to use C++ for nearly a year.  But bit
by bit, success talks, and people make the transition.


-- 
Robert Martin       | Design Consulting   | Training courses offered:
Object Mentor Assoc.| rmartin@rcmcon.com  |   Object Oriented Analysis
2080 Cranbrook Rd.  | Tel: (708) 918-1004 |   Object Oriented Design
Green Oaks IL 60048 | Fax: (708) 918-1023 |   C++
