C is fastest (was: McMaster University Creates Open Source eHealth Records System)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 10:53:17AM -0400, Jon VanAlten wrote:
> Not being the best tool for a particular task doesn't make a tool
> useless or stupid.
> 
> The lazy ass idiot programmers you speak of earlier are capable of
> such wastage regardless of the language used.

Oh probably they are, but they in many cases would realize they don't
know what they are doing.  Some languages encourage people to think they
know what they are doing by hiding all the problems they are creating.

> Again, "not useful for my particular needs" does not imply "not useful
> at all".  Even accepting your premise that Java's garbage collection
> is inefficient, there are use cases where one is less concerned with
> CPU cycles.  The average desktop or laptop on the market today is
> grossly overpowered relative to the typical use of "Joe Consumer".

As a user, I hate everytime I encounter a java application because my
machine slows to a crawl.  Nothing to do with writing programs personally.
It simply sucks.

> I think that where Java's strength lies is in the wide range of
> preexisting functionality already built into the language.  Of course,
> to make good use of these a programmer must not be lazy or stupid,
> good Java programmers have invested a lot of time in learning the
> multitude of classes made available.  And the fact that there
> continues to be improvements made in the efficiency, ie Hotspot, of
> the language at runtime just sweetens the deal.

Having lots of libraries doesn't mean the language as a base is worth it.
python has lots of libraries, ocaml has lots of libraries.  Both are
better choices.

> ps: I say these things, but also my personal preference is for C.  I
> do like the low level of abstraction, and literal control over memory,
> and the potential for efficiency esp. with a good optimizing compiler.
>  But I can also see that there are uses for higher level languages
> such as Java, with its myriad of libraries.

Having libraries is good.  Having java with mandetory turning everything
in to objected oriented spagheti is not.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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