Conspiracy Theory #1

[Sean Kelly]

retard Wrote:

> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:47:46 -0800, Bill Baxter wrote:
> 
> 
> > It seems to me that MS expects C++ to go the way of FORTRAN and
> > COBAL.  Still there, still used, but by an increasingly small number of
> > people for a small (but important!) subset of things.  Note how MS still
> > hasn't produced a C99 compiler. They just don't see it as relevant to
> > enough people to be financially worthwhile.
> 
> Even the open source community is using more and more dynamic languages 
> such as Python on the desktop and Web 2.0 (mostly javascript, flash, 
> silverlight, php, python) is a strongly growing platform. I expect most 
> of the every day apps to move to the cloud during the next 10 years. 
> Unfortunately c++ and d missed the train here. People don't care about 
> performance anymore. Even application development has moved from library 
> writing to high level descriptions of end user apps that make use of high 
> quality foss/commercial off-the-shelf components. Cloud computing, real-
> time interactive communication, and fancy visual look are the key 
> features these days.

Performance per watt is a huge issue for server farms, and until all this talk of low power, short pipeline, massively parallel computing is realized (ie. true "cloud computing"), systems languages will have a very definite place in this arena.  I know of large-scale Java projects that go to extreme lengths to avoid garbage collection cycles because they take upwards of 30 seconds to complete, even on top-of-the-line hardware.  Using a language like C remains a huge win in these situations.

Even in this magical world of massively parallel computing there will be a place for systems languages.  After all, that's how interaction with hardware works, consistent performance for time-critical code is achieved, etc.  I think the real trend to consider is that projects are rarely written in just one language these days, and ease of integration between pieces is of paramount importance.  C/C++ still pretty much stinks in this respect.