But some languages encourage better design, the some way spoken languages influence behaviour differently, no?
In previous threads, I was talking about using how languages should choose for its specific need. And how VB or other scripting languages are good for creating application while low level languages like C,C++ and Java are good for creating libraries. Some successful projects use 3 different languages: a typical VB project uses VB to access C++ and SQL.
There are many languages and Metadata that influence design. Where would we be without SQL, HTML, XML, PHP Corba or any application specific Meta Language that exist or yet to exist. Meta Data is all what Lisp is about. Imagine creating a multi-tier not using any of these but only Java.
Design is very important however it requires quite a bit of intelligence, experience and pre-planning. Sorry man, but I don�t have the intelligence or experience, despite my undemanding of abstraction being very good. The overhead is concentration would to much maan!
Sometime the best way to create a system is just to hack at it and forget the cathedral and start digging the bazaar.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ The implementation has so much effect on design, that I am sure that many object oriented purists have realised. Prototyping is where is at baby!!!
Maybe the success of English from the English Empire to the USA is because of the spoken logical language and all of the emotional expressive power to create great works like Shakespeare. All of those wonderful love songs and rock bands, Barry White, Elvis Presley, James Brown, U2 the Beatles without a language like English there creative abilities would have been crushed and we would be have been sent back to the Eurovision Song Contest days.
Programming languages as well as spoken languages can influence the thought process. Imagine a world without your precious object objected languages , concurrent design, event driven design, recursion implementation. Many languages make you think about these in different ways.
Java has loads of container types VB has about 2 or 3 at most but can be configured to behave like almost any of Java�s. I don�t know which one is better , but I do know that language influence is big factor on design and building a system is about many design and implementation cycles.
[ March 31, 2005: Message edited by: Gerald Davis ]