Programming language failings [was Re: strangest systems I've sent email from]

[Raymond Wiker]

> On 29 Apr 2016, at 22:31 , Diane Bruce <db at db.net> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 02:23:55PM -0600, Eric Smith wrote:
>> On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 12:59 PM, Ian S. King <isking at uw.edu> wrote:
>>> C is a lot like that saw - it doesn't have a lot of guards on it, and you
>>> can do stupid things.
>> 
>> The problem is that C doesn't just allow you to do stupid things, it's
>> actively encouraged. C doesn't just let you aim at your foot, it
>> defaults to aiming at your foot.
>> 
>> C is not bad as a fairly portable assembly language, but it is NOT a
>> high-level language.
> 
> Yes it is known as a high level assembler.

Taking this a bit further:

C++ is an object-oriented, high-level assembler.
Java is an object-oriented, high-level assembler with support wheels.
C# is an object-oriented, high-level assembler with support wheels that are not interchangeable with those of Java.

At least C is a useful language for coding the lowest level of Lisp implementations :-)