Re: [computer-go] C/C++ programmer ready to try new language

["Frank de Groot" <frank@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Chris Fant" <fantius75@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> My program is in C++.
Oh dear..
How did that happen? :-(


> exclusively on my own time (VB at work).  VB does make memory issues 
> harder to create, but it annoys me because it seems like it was designed 
> for infants.
After Pascal, there was no excuse for VB any more.
I loved BASIC, even wrote a CAD system in it that drew faster than AutoCAD 
at the time.


> I do spend too much time debugging memory problems in C/C++.
Of course.
Everybody does/did.
Even Microsoft army of millionair code monkeys (buffer exploits..)


> develop in Windows.  Of the languages that have been mentioned, what do 
> people recomend for someone like me to consider?
If you need a language that compiles into a fast executable (comparable to 
C++) then there is only one serious contender (if you do not want to stick 
with the C++/Java grammer otherwise you might consider a Java compiler etc.)

It is a form of Pascal that is called "Delphi".
Delphi is an extremely powerful IDE/compiler.
Much more so than MS Visual Studio.

A full rebuild of my 700,000 lines of code takes about 5 seconds on my 
system.
(It really goes over every single line of code in that time!).

Delphi lets you mix assembly into Pascal code. You can intermix Delphi 
statements with things like SSE2 and MMX assembly!

I sometimes write some code in Delphi and use variables like "mm0, mm1". 
When it runs fine, I simply convert to MMX and comment out the original 
code. There is a project called Free Pascal/Lazarus that soon will allow 
Delphi code to run on all platforms. Also Kylix is "Delphi for Linux" and 
Delphi 8 lets you compile Delphi code for .net.


> I like the power and efficiency of C.  It can be made very readable, and I 
> like that as well.
Delphi is extremely much more readable than C.
It uses "begin" and "end" instead of braces, something the human brain 
likes.
You can define them as keypress macros so you don't type more.

There is a plethora of 3rd party components available, some stuff is the 
best in the world.
The reason is that Delphi is very popular in Russia, and guys that SHOULD 
have been rocket scientists spent a decade on complex components instead.


> don't think I would like a language with an unneccessarily terse syntax. 
> And I'm sure I will want to implement tight routines in C and link them 
> into the main program (I would expect that any modern language would 
> easily facilitate this).
That is only neccessary with slow languages. Delphi integer arithmetic runs 
as fast or faster than C++.
Floating point is badly optimized but you won't need much of that in Go.

> So what do the readers recommend I look into first?
There is only one option IMHO, that's Delphi.
I shudder at the thought that people still work in C++.
I gave up C 10 years ago and never looked back.

www.moyogo.com 
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