.and if it had not left so much up to the OS vendors to fill in might have achieved the goal of running virtually unchanged code just recompiled for the target.
That was never the goal of C. The goal of ANSI-C perhaps but then "virtually unchanged" would have been a totally unrealistic target. Why do you think POSIX stepped up to the fore and all these new abstractions libraries ( e.g. SDL )?
You can't use it as a mallet to beat the OS vendors around with. Sure, there were different parlances of C in the early days but ANSI C "solved" that.
I don't see what the rest of the problem you see with OS vendors is. They write different OSes, spice is the variety of life, just like you have different APIs between two otherwise similar products you have different APIs and SPIs into operating systems. Some operating systems even behave differently. The power of programming is, that the language gives you the power to write the logic, and the API gives you the power to use that logic to drive a particular environment.
I get concerned when I see the "write once, run everywhere" speeches come out because what you end up with is code that is totally innapropriate for its target and plays to environment weaknesses and not strengths more often than not.
PS, a clue for you about Java. Not all applications are front end user interfaces. Java is big time in the commercial data/transaction/middleware/application arena. just because you don't see JavaBustAMove22 doesn't make Java unpopular.
PPS your last sentence before your name ruins an otherwise OK article. I realise that you are beating the blue drum around here since ages ( despite your PS disclaimer - Ill believe it when I see the reciepts in my hand ) but if you are going to highlight negative aspects of the Amiga Inc product line you are going to need to be a tadge more subtle than that to not have peoples reading of your article tinged with a bit of cynicism.
If this was say Mike Bouma and he had put that in at the
bottom expect those praising you in here to be slamming you.
Strange how life works eh?
:-D
