the key word is "similar" - if you think that DM has loose typecasting of variables, then it also is similar to PHP in that case.

they don't say that it *is* C-like, just similar to it, which in fact it is similar to C and many other languages that have come before it.

well.... ok, i guess you could look at it that way, but i think a more accurate description is that C# is little more than C/C++ with .net bells-and-whistles added to it.

uh, your forgetting that you cannot simply span commands across multiple lines without a delema :)

Hearing someone describe English as a Germanic language must really give you fits.

...

Anyway, you quote the opening line so I won't bother to requote it, but here's what it doesn't say:

"DM (Dream Maker) lets you build networked multi-user worlds using C/C++ language"

What you're really arguing about here is the meaning of the word "similar" (and possibly the meaning of the word "syntax")... well, here's a word whose meaning I'd like to discuss.

"Lie."

As in, "Now this is a flat out LIE."

So you think the author of this statement have fostered a deliberate untruth? Perhaps Dan and Tom were sitting around going,

"How can we sucker users into using our system?"

"Well, a lot of people know C or C++. If we tell them that DM is like C/C++, they'll think they already know! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Except... aren't the people who know C/C++ in the best position to tell that it isn't?"

"Then we'll say 'similar' and it's all meaningless semantics! It's like the perfect crime!"

"Yes... I just hope Captain Dreq, Guardian of Truth and Justice, never catches on... he could expose us in moments."

Is that really what you're trying to imply? Not necessarily the melodrama, but that it's a willful and conscious act of deception? I don't think that's what you mean. I -hope- that's not what you mean.

Now, they have made a statement of comparison. In your opinion, the comparison is not apt. It is your right to state your opinion, and your right to even come out and say that they're wrong (because that's also your opinion)... labelling it a lie on the basis of your disagreement, though, isn't called for.

I disagree with you... other people posting here have shown their disagreement, too... but are we going, "You lie, Dreq, you dirty lying liar!"

No.

We're simply stating our opinion in opposition to you.



Now you might be inclined to come back and say, "But this isn't an opinion... it's a FACT that C++ and DM are different!" Well, yes, it's a fact that there are ways that they're different and it's a fact that there are ways that they're similar, and there's no universal system for weighing the importance of differences and similarities, so it's therefore a matter of opinion whether a comparison between them is apt.

If I were describing apples to someone who had never seen any fruit other than oranges, or someone who lived in a region where oranges were the main fruit to be had from trees, I would probably begin by saying, "Apples are a type of food, similar to oranges."

People familiar with both types of fruit would be inclined to immediately jump up and say, "Nuh uh! There's hundreds of differences! They're nothing alike!", but for the people I'm trying to reach, I've made an important connection.

If I go on to give a detailed description of apples, the audience will see for themselves how and where the apple differs from their more familiar orange... the important thing is that they already have a frame of reference to compare it to. If you try describing the minutest detail of an apple in abstract terms to someone who has no idea that they're hearing a description of the edible fruit of a tree, you could be describing for a loooong time before someone goes, "Hey! This person's talking about fruit!"

Frame of reference. Very important.