Fun_People Archive
6 Jun
Re: Yes, C *is* God's programming language.

Content-Type: text/plain
Mime-Version: 1.0 (NeXT Mail 3.3 v118.2)
From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu,  6 Jun 96 13:42:09 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Re: Yes, C *is* God's programming language.

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Forwarded-by: guy@netapp.com (Guy Harris)

> The following appeared in the manuals accompanying MetaWare's C compiler,
> circa 1991 or so.  I'd venture a guess that it's still there.  Forwarded
> without comment:

Dunno, but at

	http://www.metaware.com/misc/history.html

we find:

	Corporate Culture

	Development projects, capital purchases, and all other expenses
	have always been funded by ongoing projects, with no venture
	capital or debt involved.  Our conservative fiscal stance comes
	from the Biblical principles upon which the company is based.
	The founders of MetaWare are committed Christians and have
	established the following mission statement:

	    Honor God by choosing to live out Biblical business principles.

	    Honor Jesus Christ by telling His story, as led by the Holy Spirit.

	    Encourage all employees to develop to their highest potential.

	    Serve customers and associates with superior products and services.

although they're not as in-your-face about it as are Apache Digital who,
at:

	http://www.apache.com/
say:
	About Apache Digital

	Apache Digital Corporation is formed as a tool to be used by God
	to be a blessing to people, and to support the spread of the
	gospel of Jesus Christ to all the nations of the earth.  It is
	to be operated on the principles of God as laid out in the
	Bible.  We have faith that Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider,
	is more than capable of supplying all our needs; that Jehovah
	Nissi, the Lord our Victory, will fight all our battles for us;
	that Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace, will shoulder all of
	the burdens and pressures of daily operation; and that we will
	find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

	The principle focus of Apache Digital is to address emerging
	commercial opportunities on the Internet, such as marketing
	high-performance computers and peripherals.  We commit to
	providing top-quality products and service at fair market prices
	in a timely manner.  The operating philosophy of the company
	will be modeled after the standards set forth in ISO9000 that
	promote employee empowerment and participation in establishing,
	documenting, and continuously improving all work processes.

So does this mean that the Kingdom of Heaven is ISO 9000-compliant, and
do they practice Total Quality Management?

> Most of all we acknowledge that we are not self-made, but God-made.  And
> we thank God for building into us the talents that made it possible for us
> to create High C.  Yet all defects are attributable to our imperfect, fallen
> human nature.

So why the heck didn't they hire God to write the compiler?  (I suppose
one could then check the code to see if it has any polynomial-time
solutions to NP-complete problems, and resolve *that* question once and
for all....)

Or, alternatively, I might infer from "fallen" that perhaps Adam and/or
Eve, before the Fall, *could've* written a perfect compiler....

© 1996 Peter Langston