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From: Stefan Monnier <monnier+comp.lang.functional@tequila.cs.yale.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.scheme.scsh,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.tcl,comp.lang.functional,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.python,comp.lang.eiffel
Subject: Re: Reply to Ousterhout's reply (was Re: Ousterhout and Tcl ...)
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Date: 10 Apr 1997 17:17:02 -0400
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Smiljan Grmek <Smi@4mate.hr> writes:
> So now we know how to make *good* languages - like good indians?
> Seriously, languages must be designed for average, garden variety of
> programmers, not CS graduates. US DOD stated that conversion to parallel
> processing is not advisable because only 1/3 of their programmers could
> program in appropriate languages. 

You confuse the difficulty of switching language-style with the difficulty of
learning that specific language-style. Functional programming has never been
proven harder to learn than C. But you might have trouble getting used to
recursion now that you've been told for years and years that "for and while"
are the way to go and that recursion is complex (which it frequently is if and
only if it is mixed with assignment).


        Stefan
