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Survey Results

What features are most important to you in a programming language?   [Edit]

Survey period: 17 Dec 2007 to 24 Dec 2007

If one language did everything there would only be one language... (suggested by Milan1612)

OptionVotes% 
Automatic memory management93649.81
Industry acceptance as a "standard" language80142.63
Support for Object Oriented Programming1,50279.94
Templates or Generics77141.03
Strong Typing94450.24
Inbuilt support for regular expressions46824.91
Support for reflection55129.32
Cross-platform support76440.66
Support for default parameter values in functions43222.99
Namespace support68036.19
Support for First-class functions25313.46
An extensive standard library1,22565.19
Multiple return values from functions32917.51
Compile to native code (instead of byte code or intermediate code)64034.06
Respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer; totals may not add up to 100%



 
GeneralRe: Call me a VB programmer ... Pin
John Oxley19-Dec-07 0:40
John Oxley19-Dec-07 0:40 
GeneralRe: Call me a VB programmer ... Pin
Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳20-Dec-07 0:25
Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳20-Dec-07 0:25 
JokeMultiple return values from functions? Pin
Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳18-Dec-07 8:17
Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳18-Dec-07 8:17 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
Marshall Rosenstein18-Dec-07 9:03
Marshall Rosenstein18-Dec-07 9:03 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
PIEBALDconsult18-Dec-07 9:52
mvePIEBALDconsult18-Dec-07 9:52 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
Anton Afanasyev18-Dec-07 16:37
Anton Afanasyev18-Dec-07 16:37 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? [modified] Pin
Marshall Rosenstein19-Dec-07 3:27
Marshall Rosenstein19-Dec-07 3:27 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
W Balboos, GHB19-Dec-07 7:04
W Balboos, GHB19-Dec-07 7:04 
Thinking too generically?

Return values of type object are common enough.* I don't see any problem with that approach. It's also a mechanism for circumventing the inability to create a single method w/a variable arg list. (Overloads really don't come close to replacing this joy of C ).

At first, I was thinking about strategies to pass in the type of the class that was to be returned, and since this was passed in by the caller its type was known by the caller. The typeid could be used, an object of that type created, and cast to a generic object type for return.

All this to avoid simply returning a struct containing the appropriate info (?).**

Then I got to thinking about the whole thing. In what circumstance could I get any real added-value functionality by returning an arbitrary type? Here's what I was thinking: the full generalization is to submit arbitrary data and return an arbitrary type. How do we process the former without making so large and complex a logic tree that it's unworkable? The crux of this is that it implies a totally generic data-processor (i.e., it too is a sort of arbitrary).

All things wonderful could be accomplished by either returning (a) structure, or (b) an object container (like ArrayList), or (c) an generic object.

The methods utlimately need some sort of body to do anything and so if we make it too abstract we end up with either too much or nothing at all



* Example: SqlClient::SqlCommand::ExecuteScaler()
** Time/watch analogy in a different area of the main thread
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
Marshall Rosenstein19-Dec-07 7:51
Marshall Rosenstein19-Dec-07 7:51 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
W Balboos, GHB19-Dec-07 8:07
W Balboos, GHB19-Dec-07 8:07 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
Marshall Rosenstein19-Dec-07 8:17
Marshall Rosenstein19-Dec-07 8:17 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
PIEBALDconsult20-Dec-07 17:24
mvePIEBALDconsult20-Dec-07 17:24 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
Anton Afanasyev19-Dec-07 11:28
Anton Afanasyev19-Dec-07 11:28 
AnswerRe: Multiple return values from functions? [modified] Pin
Marshall Rosenstein20-Dec-07 6:09
Marshall Rosenstein20-Dec-07 6:09 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
Anton Afanasyev20-Dec-07 17:07
Anton Afanasyev20-Dec-07 17:07 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
PIEBALDconsult18-Dec-07 10:04
mvePIEBALDconsult18-Dec-07 10:04 
JokeRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳18-Dec-07 11:00
Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳18-Dec-07 11:00 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
leppie18-Dec-07 21:10
leppie18-Dec-07 21:10 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
DQNOK19-Dec-07 5:48
professionalDQNOK19-Dec-07 5:48 
GeneralRe: Multiple return values from functions? Pin
PIEBALDconsult20-Dec-07 18:01
mvePIEBALDconsult20-Dec-07 18:01 
GeneralA good IDE Pin
Nibu babu thomas17-Dec-07 21:17
Nibu babu thomas17-Dec-07 21:17 
GeneralRe: A good IDE Pin
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar17-Dec-07 23:01
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar17-Dec-07 23:01 
GeneralRe: A good IDE Pin
Nibu babu thomas17-Dec-07 23:12
Nibu babu thomas17-Dec-07 23:12 
GeneralAdvanced dev Pin
Paul Watson18-Dec-07 22:38
sitebuilderPaul Watson18-Dec-07 22:38 
GeneralRe: Advanced dev Pin
Nibu babu thomas19-Dec-07 0:12
Nibu babu thomas19-Dec-07 0:12 

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