From: gt0852c%prism@gatech.edu (Daniel Rothman)
Subject: Re: Implementing a virtual world
Date: 8 Jun 90 20:25:14 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology



yes, i think we CAN reasonably ignore MS-DOS as a stated compatability
norm.  MS-DOS is clunky, only runs on a few basic platforms and was
never designed to be, nor has anyone ever commented on its accidental
suitability as, a large-scale software development environment.

If I were really to open up and make some suggestions, i'd start with
smalltalk for the amiga 3000 with lots of inline for the blitter.  
I'm trying not to be prejudicial though, so i'd like to suggest 
something more flexible and more industry-standard.  Like C++ on a 
Unix platform.  And no, i'm not trying to start a debate on Unix.
i'd just like to point out that unix and C were really meant for 
each other, and always will be.  If C++ is to become a VR standard,
lets start it out in its native environment - THEN port if we have
to.  Sounds to me like a much easier job than porting from MS-DOS to
UNIX.

The main reason I suggest C++ is because it is object-oriented, and
if there was ever a problem that stood up and ASKED to be object
implemented, it's VR.  In that light, I think that, even if the 
world's next accepted version of *nix is really off the wall, our
C code should still port.  If we retain enough object stuff, then
our codings will be modular enough that we can track down what needs
to be replaced and DO IT.  The rest should still stand on its own
merits.

Further reasons to employ *nix.  Unix is designed to be a development
environment.  It has multiple debugging facilities for C.  Facilities
exist to communicate between programmers, and it allows compilation/
execution of code across account boundaries.  Make is a fairly standard,
relatively easy to use compilation tool.  There are just too many good
tools to ignore.  


uxmal