A program that has not been tested does not work.

People who passionately want to believe that the world is basically simple react to this with a fury that goes beyond what I consider appropriate for discussing a programming language.

Too many managers and executives try to reduce programming to a low-level assembly-line activity. That's inefficient, wasteful, costly in the long run, and inhumane to programmers.

However, when Java is promoted as the sole programming language, its flaws and limitations become serious.

Tom [Cargil]s suggestion with a further idea: Propsers of new [C++] features should be required to donate a kidney. That would - Jim [Waldo] pointed out - make people think hard before proposing, and even people without any sense would propose at most two extensions.

After all, C++ isn't a perfect match for Java's design aims either.

I would encourage nonproprietary standards for tools and libraries.