Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Quotes from "The Design and Evolution of C++"

A quote from "The Design and Evolution of C++" which I thought was enlightening:
  • "I firmly believe that language design isn't an exercise in pure thought, but a very practical exercise in balancing needs, ideals, techniques, and constraints. A good language is not merely designed, it is grown. The exercise has more to do with engineering, sociology, and philosophy than with mathematics." (p. 104)
A different quote, which I also found interesting, even though I have not completely formed my own opinion on it, is:
  • "the most fundamental reason for relying on statically checked interfaces was that I was - as I still am - firmly convinced that a program composed out of statically type-checked parts is more likely to faithfully express a well-thought-out design than a program relying on weakly-typed interfaces or dynamically-checked interfaces."

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