Re: some personal rambling on java the lang

From:
ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.c++
Date:
21 Oct 2010 10:34:44 GMT
Message-ID:
<Java-C++-20101021121553@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.c++

George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> writes:

What Java lacks that limits its utility with respect to C or C++ is
the ability to overlay a logical view of structured data at an
arbitrary memory location. This ability is the single feature of C
and C++ which makes them strictly more powerful than Java.


  This is low-level/tool-level wording. (There is nothing wrong
  with this per se, but ...)

  A program eventually has to perform some function that often
  can be defined not using terms of a specific programming language.
  For example, ?display an adjustable alarm clock?.

  Often such a problem will be implemented in Java using other
  means, where such a memory overlay is not required.

First, there is no way *reliably* to obtain an arbitrary location
mapping on memory.


  I don't know what a ?location mapping? is, but if you
  refer to converting an integer to a pointer type: The result
  of such a conversion is implementation-defined in C.

      ?An integer may be converted to any pointer type. Except
      as previously specified, the result is implementation-
      defined, might not be correctly aligned, might not point
      to an entity of the referenced type, and might be a trap
      representation.?

    ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E), 6.3.2.3, p5

  If we allow for implementation-defined features, then a Java
  implementation can offer such a mapping, too, via JNI.

  If we want to write portable code, it cannot be used
  neither in C nor in Java.

  For C++, I am not able to find any word on such a conversion
  in chapter 4 ?Standard conversions? of ISO/IEC 14882:2003(E).

So what? C++ has this feature called a "library" that, among other
things, allows you to use functions that you didn't write.


  The Journal "COTS" reports that the military migrates away
  from Ada towards Java. The /portable/ libraries of Java are
  recognized as an edge over C++.

      ?Another advantage Java offers is a broad selection of
      standard, portable and scalable libraries. That's where
      it has an edge over C++. While C++ has some good
      libraries, they're not portable---one set of libraries
      is needed with Windows, a different set is needed for
      Solaris, and yet another for Linux.?

    Jeff Child

http://www.cotsjournalonline.com/pdfs/2003/07/COTS07_softside.pdf

  For example, you can write a web spider, that will download
  a hierarchy of web pages into a hierarchy of directories
  with a GUI in /portable/ Java code (stricly speaking: Java SE).
  Nothing of this is possible in portable C++ code: Can't access
  the web, can't create directories, can't build a GUI, and so on.

  See also:

http://www.purl.org/stefan_ram/pub/c++_standard_extensions_en

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