Re: Choice of languages

[Michael ROGERS <M Rogers cs ucl ac uk>]

>C++ is fairly useless without advanced math - Modern Algebra comes to mind.  
>Without the concepts developed in that couse, C++ is still ultimately a 
>procedural language (at least here at Texas A&M University).  Object 
>orientation is the core of mathematics.  Not many people in computer science 
>have that kind of background (again, at least here at TAMU).  To expect that 
>kind of knowledge is not (IMHO) reasonable in an open source environment.

 I don't agree. If anything, I think object orientation is easier to
understand than a purely procedural approach. I haven't taken any advanced
maths, but the concept of describing objects and their interactions makes a
lot of sense to me because it mirrors what I see in the real world.

 I also think it's a little bizarre to expect less knowledge of open source
programmers than you would of programmers in general. My brief experience of
open source software leads me to regard it as better designed, more
efficiently coded and more forward-looking than proprietary/commercial
software. I'm sure this is due in part to the diverse range of skills and
knowledge which the programmers bring to their work.


Michael Rogers