OT: Language for the ages

[Dave Dunfield]

>Suppose you wanted to write an application for a manufacturing process that
>will, in all probability, run for the next 30 years.  No direct control of
>the process itself is entailed (i.e., you don't need the program to
>operation valves or run motors), but you do need this program to compute
>manufacturing parameters for each customer.  I/O requirements are very
>modest, mostly simple keyboard and display.
>
>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.

Impossible to say without a better specification of the application, however
given the longevity requirement, unless it was a very bad fit, I would probably
use 'C' (not C++, C# etc - plain vanilla 'C') for several reasons:

 - It's been around a long time, and has been ported to many different platforms,
   making it a well known and popular language.
 - It has a reasonably clearly defined standard.
 - It has always been developed with an eye to portability.
 - It is still being used in many systems, and is likely to continue to be used
   for a considerable time into the future.
 - It's flexible enough to use as a general purpose language, and has the ability
   to get "down and dirty" if you need. (Ie: It will probably not be a bad
   environment for the task at hand).

But what is probably the most important reason to me:

 - I have a mature 'C' compiler (I first released it in 1988) which I can port to
   any damn platform I need, so I don't have to count on having a vendor to support
   C tools on this future unknown system.

Regards,
Dave

-- 
dave04a (at)    Dave Dunfield
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