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On Sunday 29 January 2006 15:56, mathew wrote:
> Is there some reason why a thin API facade is impossible? You wouldn't
> need to make it high performance.

What do you mean by an API facade?

> > Java 1.0 -> 1.5 didn't break anything.  Java 1.0 code is legal 1.5 code.
>
> Which is why Java has (for example) at least four different equivalents
...
> Java took the approach of not wanting anything to break ever, because

Which, IME, they failed at.  I've had to rewrite Java code to get it to work 
with newer VMs.

> Perl is another example of the "sounds good, throw it in" approach to

You'll notice that none of the languages you've mentioned have built-in 
support for versioned libraries.  It isn't quite clear to me why this keeps 
getting missed in language design, especially in the younger languages.

-- 
--- SER

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, 
more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.  On some 
great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach 
their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned 
by a downright moron."        -  H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

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