At 03:22 PM 7/20/97 +0200, Samuel Tardieu wrote:
> For example I cannot see any "true" functional language in
>your list (such as ML or CAML) nor any portable interpreted languages
>(let along shells) such as Python that are very useful to develop
>small prototypes in a very short time (for example to test a brand new
>algorithm against gross errors or to estimate the mean complexity of
>an algorithm).

     I don't want to get into the debate about which Lisp dialects are
"true" functional languages, but yes, I was trying to keep the list to
those languages which are sufficently dominant in a particular area.  For
instance, I almost added Prolog, but figured it didn't quite make the cut.
And, yes, a good software engineer has probably used a dozen scripting
langauges and twice as many assemblers.  But can someone who has never
written a significant program in assembler--or even machine
language--qualify as a good software engineer?

                                        Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...