Olin Lathrop wrote:

> I regret that C has caught on to the point it has such that folks like
> you feel compelled to provide a reasonably C-compatible language as
> apposed to one with much better constructs.  I would much rather see
> you free to innovate. I understand the business reasons your
> compilers have to be C, but that is not evidence of C being good,
> only popular.  Unfortunately C is well past critical mass so that
> even if folks like you agreed with me (I don't know whether you do or
> not), you couldn't make a business case for a well designed language
> specifically targeted for embedded systems.

It is funny you should say so. This reminded me of our conversation
about the (collectively incredibly inefficient) state of affairs WRT
abandoning imperial units in mechanics in the USA and moving towards
metric units. I see a very obvious analogy between C and imperial units:
both have better alternatives, but both have a critical mass created by
more or less arbitrary historic events, and both create, so to speak,
"local optimums" that people stay in without moving to a better "local
optimum". 

In that conversation about moving to metric you strongly defended the
individual's decision to stay in the "local optimum" they found once --
it seems just as strongly as you regret their same decision in the case
of C.


(I see one difference where the analogy ends: there is no way around
eventually "going metric", unless the world falls into a state of global
war and all trade with places outside the USA ceases. The direction and
the end state is clear; the only thing not clear is how long it will
take and how much money and effort collectively will be wasted on the
way. The fate of C and if, when and by what it will be replaced is not
clear at all. Which seems to indicate that the decision to stay in the
"local optimum" with imperial is a less understandable one than the
decision to stay in the "local optimum" with C.)

Gerhard
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