Selecting a Programming Language
Assembler - A formula I race car. Very fast but difficult to drive
and maintain.
FORTRAN II - A Model T Ford. Once it was the king of the road.
FORTRAN IV - A Model A Ford.
FORTRAN 77 - a six-cylinder Ford Fairlane with manual transmission
and no seat belts.
COBOL - A deliver van It's bulky and ugly but it does the work.
BASIC - A second-hand Rambler with a rebuilt engine and patched
upholstery. Your dad bought it for you to learn to
drive. You'll ditch it as soon as you can afford a new
one.
PL/I - A Cadillac convertable with automatic transmission, a
two-tone paint job, white-wall tires, chrome exhaust
pipes, and fuzzy dice hanging in the windshield.
C - A black Firebird, the all macho car. Comes with optional
seatbelt (lint) and optional fuzz buster (escape to
assembler).
ALGOL 60 - An Austin Mini. Boy that's a small car.
Pascal - A Volkswagon Beetle. It's small but sturdy. Was once
popular with intellectual types.
Modula II - A Volkswagon Rabbit with a trailer hitch.
ALGOL 68 - An Aston Martin. An impressive car but not just anyone
can drive it.
LISP - An electric car. It's simple but slow. Seat belts are
not available.
PROLOG/LUCID - Prototype concept cars.
Maple/MACSYMA - All-terrain vehicles.
FORTH - A go-cart.
LOGO - A kiddie's replica of a Rolls Royce. Comes with a
real engine and a working horn.
APL - A double-decker bus. It takes rows and columns of
passengers to the same place all at the same time
but it drives only in reverse and is instrumented
in Greek.
Ada - An army-green Mercedes-Benz staff car. Power steering,
power brakes, and automatic transmission are standard.
No other colors or options are available. If it's good
enough for generals, it's good enough for you.
Szymon Marek Rusinkiewicz smr@athena.mit.edu From the Internet. © not known.