Design Issue - Which Language?
CSC 205

A common grouping for 3rd generation programming languages is:

• Imperative Languages (Cobol, Pascal, Fortran)
• Object-oriented Languages (Smalltalk, C++, Java)
• Functional Languages (Lisp, ML)
• Logic Languages (Prolog)

• Database Queries (SQL)
• Database Applications (Access, Powerbuilder, Delphi, Focus)
• Prototyping (Tcl, Visual Basic)
• Windows applications (Visual Basic, Delphi)
• WWW (html)

• Organization standard
  

  It's the language we use!

• Programmer skill level
  

  There are N * 10**5 programmers in the world where N is quite large. Most of them can learn to program in Visual Basic; few can ever successfully write C++ code.

• Application domain
  

  Choose a language that best suits the characteristics of your application. For example, Cobol suits the business domain because (why?). Fortran suits the scientific domain because (why?). Ada suits the embedded system domain because (why?). Powerbuilder suits the database domain because (why?).

• Design methodology
  

  Choose a language that matches your design methodology. If you're an object-oriented shop, then you would normally choose C++ or Smalltalk. If you're a prototyping shop, then you might choose Visual Basic.

• Quality attributes in your requirements
  

  Languages have a major effect on your project's quality requirements. For example, it's quite difficult to write a portable C program.

• Other factors

  Standards, training, books and support are important to many people, especially in large organizations.