Serious applications

[Brian Yennie]

> A link to the correct library - that's about one line, I'd say.

Except when there isn't a free library that launches an entire 
scriptable RAD environment in one line.

> Not taking into account that I do never need to get "word 3 of item 6 
> of line 17" but usually use some regexp for such tasks - I'd say a 
> call of the right function in the correct library takes about one > line.

RegExp would be an awfully slow way to do chunk expressions. That and 
it wouldn't work very well... pattern matching and text chunking aren't 
the same thing.

> Yes, by using shared libraries - or, depending on the actual task, 
> using a plug in system.

That's great... if you distribute the shared library yourself. And if 
so, there's a good chance you wrote it. In which case all of the "one 
line to the correct library" stuff becomes moot...

> But C or C++ isn't a language on its own, as you depict. You always 
> access a large pool of libraries, you (surely?) don't reinvent wheels, 
> tires or women every time you start coding something.

I do agree with you in principle; however, I think you are vastly 
overstating the concise nature of programming in C or C++ by implying 
that you can just replace RAD functionality with one line linking to 
the right shared library. There are a lot of C/C++ libraries out there, 
but there aren't _that_ many, and there are many issues around using 
them. Especially cross-platform.

FWIW,
Brian