CompuServe Messages

> >>Getting more out of fewer staff seems to be the main aim where I am > working now, and I think it is true in most places.<< > Same here, but I remain convinced that it *should* not be this way. I agree but it seems to be the way everything is going. I call it greed and I think in the end it will be self defeating. If fewer and fewer people are earning then there will be fewer people who can afford to buy consumer goods. But for now all organisations seem to be trying to grab the biggest share of a decreasing prosperity for themsleves. Anyway, appologies for that brief rant and back to our subject… >>>Safety critical applications are another issue. You need development > tools that have been very well designed and very thoroughly tested.<< > How true. > >>I would be more uneasy getting on the plane if I knew the compiler was > built by a team who are very good programmers, but don't work on > compilers most of the time.<< > If the first remains true, why? I think that designing and implementing compilers is a specialised field. I consider myself a competent programmer, and I think I could create an assembler or a compiler for a simple langauge like Basic, but I would not know how to start desinging a C compiler. And how do you create your own debugger without using someone else's debugger? It is possible, but it would be a difficult job. Existing compilers are not perfect but they have been created by people who have a lot of experience creating compilers. I would expect efforts from people who are just as good programmers but who don't have experience of compiler design are not likely to be as good. Peter Wade Autopiloting from London, England