kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 08/06/2010 11:49 AM, Brian F. G. Bidulock wrote:
> Dick,
>
> On Fri, 06 Aug 2010, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
>   
>>     
> --X--snip--X--
>   
>> Curious about scala now.  Later I came to refer to the lower level
>> languages as "programming on your hands and knees".  Each has their
>> place, but this is determined by the platform.  The fact that the linux
>> kernel is written in C, is a perfect language choice.  It should be in
>> C.  But when you move up into the application space, and have enough
>> disk space, and infrastructure, and still write in C, you are now
>> "programming on your hands and knees" IMO.
>>     
> Looking at the code I can see that a lot of people have
> been "programming on their hands and knees" in C++.
> Most of it is C code fed at a C++ compiler.
>
> --brian
>   


I suspect that it was orignally written in C and then fed to the C++
compiler and gradual adoption of classes along the way.  Jean Pierre
could tell us.  And I don't know how many people have been involved, it
is probably not accurate to say a lot.  Jean Pierre has never said if
any of his students have contributed, but it seems like it would be a
cool thing to do as a student.

As far as open source projects go, of any kind, I think it is very very
good, and getting better everyday.  That last bit is encouraging.

It should be known that there was sort of a consensus reached during a
discussion many months ago, that C++ could be pushed to the point of
obfuscation, and I think we agreed to always stay with concepts that
keep the code easy to read and maintain.  A balance point can be found
in many spectrums.

What amazes me about Jean Pierre is the patience of the man.  To sit
back silently and have folks criticize, contort, and modify previously
written code cannot be easy.  He is a man of greater patience than most,
and his generosity is appreciated by me and many.

Dick