From 3402126263412798312 X-Google-Thread: f78e5,6294651cbc4b105c X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsread.com!news-xfer.newsread.com!news-feed01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net!nntp.frontiernet.net!newscon06.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!news-FFM2.ecrc.net!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newsfeed.icl.net!peer-uk.news.demon.net!kibo.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!stump.algebra.com!devnull From: francis@robinton.demon.co.uk (Francis Glassborow) Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: C++ standard life cycle Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:21:10 GMT Organization: Southfield Microcomputer SS Lines: 55 Sender: mail2news@demon.net Approved: fjh@cs.mu.oz.au (Fergus Henderson , moderator of comp.std.c++) Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: news.news.demon.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=us-ascii;format=flowed X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 1124806881 8852 158.152.254.254 (23 Aug 2005 14:21:21 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:21:21 +0000 (UTC) X-Robomod: STUMP, ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov) X-User-Agent: Turnpike/6.03-U (<$MMbFJuTVCjyYIbg4lihKxn0Ak>) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at cs.mu.OZ.AU X-Received: (from fjh@localhost) by mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU (8.12.10+Sun/8.12.9/Submit) id j7NELAYx019232; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:21:10 +1000 (EST) X-Path: comp-std-cpp-robomod!not-for-mail X-Delivered-To: std-c++@ucar.edu X-Authentication-Warning: mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU: fjh set sender to devnull@stump.algebra.com using -f X-Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.std.c++:1906 In article , John Nagle writes >The first ISO standard for Pascal was issued in 1983. The Pascal >working group was wound up on April 30, 1995, and there has been >no new work since then. So that standards activity had a life of >12 years, a surprisingly short period for what was once a major >language. > >ALGOL was first described in 1960, and standards activity began >in 1962, under the auspices of IFIP. The ALGOL Bulletin ceased >publication in 1976, so that standards effort had a life of 14 years. > >The Common LISP standards effort began in 1983, and appears to have >ceased operations in 1994. So that effort had a lifetime of >11 years. > >FORTRAN and COBOL still have ongoing standards efforts, 40 years on. >(COBOL is adding a "<>" operator, support for ISO 8601:2000 dates >(a bit late for Y2K), and, surprisingly, method overloading.) >But the rate of change is very low. > >The first ISO standard for ANSI C was issued in 1990, and continues, >so that effort is at year 14. > >So, with the exception of FORTRAN and COBOL, the earliest of major >languages, the active lifespan of a language standards effort seems to >be in the range of 11 to 15 years. > >The first ISO standard for C++ was issued in 1997, so we are now at >year 8 with C++. This gives us a sense of where we are in the >life cycle. There's probably one more major revision cycle >left in the lifespan. You are being inconsistent in the way you count. In some cases you measure from the start of Standards activity and in others from the first Standard release. C is in about year 23 from the start of standardisation, C++ in year 16. And where is Ada in your list? I think all your data demonstrates is that some languages become so important to some communities that they are willing to fund ongoing work. If I were a betting man, I would lay good odds that C++ will still be around and under continued development in 2020. -- Francis Glassborow ACCU Author of 'You Can Do It!' see http://www.spellen.org/youcandoit For project ideas and contributions: http://www.spellen.org/youcandoit/projects --- [ comp.std.c++ is moderated. To submit articles, try just posting with ] [ your news-reader. If that fails, use mailto:std-c++@ncar.ucar.edu ] [ --- Please see the FAQ before posting. --- ] [ FAQ: http://www.jamesd.demon.co.uk/csc/faq.html ]