Re: Programming a PBM game: What language is best?

From: hack@arabia.uucp (Edmund Hack)

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 21:02:27 +0000

In article <1992Oct28.172421.11199@afit.af.mil> kmathias@afit.af.mil (Karl S Mathias) writes:
>hack@arabia.uucp (Edmund Hack) writes:
>
>>Better in what sense?  Pascal, C, or any of a number of other languages
>>are reasonable choices for a PBM game to use.  In fact, I'd recommend
>>Pascal over C for most PBM games as it is a more bullet-proof/idiot
>>proof language and would  be better for use by a programming novice,
>>which most GMs are.  Pascal (esp. Turbo Pascal) is a mature compiler
>>(unlike C++ for PCs) with extensive support in the form of books, add on
>>packages, etc.  Face it - C is nothing more than structured assembly
>>language for stack based machines.
>
>Since a PBM game could run on anything from a PC to a Mac to a VAX,
>Pascal would be a poor choice in terms of portability.

Agreed, with the caveat that there are damn few portable languages.
Fortran 77 is probably the most portable, followed by COBOL and ADA.
However, my estimate, based on reading the trades is that 95% of PBM
games run on IBM PC clones.  Most of the rest run on Macs.  I only know
of two commercial gamemasters that were running on anything else.  Both
have been moved to one of the above CPUs.
>I would
>recommend C++ (good compilers are now available on most machines).  This
>will allow his PBM game to be designed in an object-oriented manner that
>should be fairly portable among machines.

Um, C and C++ are not very portable.

>Pascal w/objects
>compilers are extremely implementation dependent (and can hardly
>be considered mature).

True, if you want to do OOP.  Given that most GMs are not trained
programmers, this is not a real consideration.
>
>>Don't throw stones until you have had to make such choices in a
>>professional setting.  What is taucht in CS classes has little
>>correspondence to the real world.
>
>Hmmm... the professional "real world" is certainly not using Pascal, it
>is using C and C++.

The real world is dominated by COBOL, database languages (like RPG) and
Fortran programs.  There is more COBOL code out there than you can shake
a stick at.  There are more pro COBOL programmers than anything else.
The mundane job of commerce and data processing is dominated by COBOL
for a number of good reasons.  C is not an appropriate language for
business programming (no fixed point math for one reason). The technical
community may be moving to it, but commercial DP is staying with COBOL.
Even PL/I, a clearly more flexible and better structured language,
pushed heavily by IBM made only a small dent in the COBOL market.

>Why waste time with Pascal when it won't carry
>forward into other jobs?

In the case of a PBM company, this is not a consideration.  If I was
hired to do the job, I'd use (as I said) Visual Basic and/or C as a
front end to some kind of database.  {Of course, if I had my druthers,
I'd program everthing in Common LISP at a LISP Machine of some kind.  It
is the best programmer's environment that exists.  Unfortunately, it is
not a very common one.}

>
>My apologies to those who read rec.games.pbm and wish this thread would
>die.  See you in rec.games.programmer.

--
    Edmund Hack - Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co. - Houston, TX
  hack@aio.jsc.nasa.gov - I speak only for myself, unless blah, blah..
   Papoon for President - You Know He's Not Insane! - Endorsed by the
  American Friends of the Martian Space Party, League of Winged Voters

References

Re: Programming a PBM game: What language is best?
itlm013@judy.ucdavis.edu (Captain Caveman)
Tue, 27 Oct 1992 20:18:38 +0000
Re: Programming a PBM game: What language is best?
hack@arabia.uucp (Edmund Hack)
Wed, 28 Oct 1992 12:27:37 +0000
Re: Programming a PBM game: What language is best?
kmathias@afit.af.mil (Karl S Mathias)
Wed, 28 Oct 1992 17:24:21 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Programming a PBM game: What language is best?
itlm013@judy.ucdavis.edu (Captain Caveman)
Tue, 27 Oct 1992 20:18:38 +0000
Re: Programming a PBM game: What language is best?
hack@arabia.uucp (Edmund Hack)
Wed, 28 Oct 1992 12:27:37 +0000
Re: Programming a PBM game: What language is best?
kmathias@afit.af.mil (Karl S Mathias)
Wed, 28 Oct 1992 17:24:21 +0000