OT: Language for the ages

[Patrick Finnegan]

Jules Richardson declared on Friday 14 October 2005 01:41 pm:
> Chuck Guzis wrote:
> > What would you write it in?  Clearly, you'd want to be independent
> > of a particular software vendor, so the likes of Visual BASIC isn't
> > an option. You'd also want to write in a language that isn't nearing
> > obsolesence, nor one that's still evolving.  "Niche" languages would
> > be out of the question, as longevity could be a problem.
> >
> > So what would it be?   My vote is for FORTRAN.
>
> Or Java; at least it's standard, strictly defined, open (in that
> bytecode format etc. is documented), cross-platform, and even if it
> *were* to become obsolete in x years I can't see there not being
> emulators around on current hardware of the day which can emulate a
> DOS / Windows / whatever box and therefore run the compiler or
> runtime.

Except that the program you write against today's Java won't compile 
against tomorrow's Java.

It's amazing to me that a language API can change that much between point 
revisions (eg, 1.1 to 1.2).

For something that runs on modern-ish (non-classic) hardware, my vote is 
for C, Perl, or ksh/bash; C for a large/complex program, Perl for things 
in the middle, and ksh/bash for simple tasks.

Pat
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