C vs ADA, FORTRAN, PASCAL, etc.

[Tom Roberts]

Request for Information:

We are starting up a new project involving multiple
computers supplied by several manufacturers. Estimates of its size
(software) are in the range of 20000 to 50000 source lines.

At issue is the implementation programming-language. We would
like to use C, but must justify its use. This is an open invitation
to express your opinion of why C (or language X) is YOUR language of choice.

Other languages suggested are: ADA, COBOL, FORTRAN, and PASCAL.
Why is C better than any of these (or vice-versa) ?

Any and all reasons, however trivial or esoteric, are welcome.
Of special concern to us are:
	Portability
	Productivity
	Software Engineering issues
	Existing Tools / Programming Environments
	Reliability

Experience is often a useful measure; if you have used any of these
languages for a project of this size, how good/bad/impractical
was the language you used?

This has great potential to clutter up the net - PLEASE mail responses
to me, and I will summarize to the net, including credit to the
original authors. <FLAMES> will be accepted, but are subject to editing.

		Tom Roberts
		ihnp4!ihnet!tjr