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From: "Tim Behrendsen" <tim@airshields.com>
Subject: Re: C is 'better' than Ada because...
Date: 1996/07/27
Message-ID: <01bb7bf9$b89a1740$96ee6fcf@timhome2>#1/1
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Date: 1996-07-27T00:00:00+00:00
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Theodore E. Dennison <dennison@escmail.orl.mmc.com> wrote in article
<31F613F3.2781E494@escmail.orl.mmc.com>...
> Tim Behrendsen wrote:
> > 
> > My personal preference is for small nuts-and-bolts languages, anyway.
> > Ada always seemed too "kitchen sink" for my tastes.
> 
> Mine is for languages that are the least error prone, and the easiest 
> to track down bugs in. That way, I get to spend my evenings at home
> with my family.
> 
> > My question is this, and I really don't mean this snidely: If Ada is so
> > good, why are the only companies that use it are the ones that deal
with
> > the government, which make them use it?  Ada has had plenty of time to
> > develop the infrastructure that C has developed, so it can't be a "I
> > don't want to be first" mentality on the part of industry.
> 
> You have a good point. Unfortunately, your premise is wrong. Ada is in 
> extensive use outside of the Government. In fact it is the language of 
> choice wherever a software failure is liable to cause loss of life or a 
> very large lawsuit. 

This sounds to me like the "Macintosh" argument; if only the general
public weren't so ignorant, the Macintosh would be the dominant
platform.  Never mind the very real problems with the platform.

Based on your post, Ada is only appropriate for mission critical
applications, and not for other applications? Again, the question,
and I ask this respectfully, "If it's so good, why isn't it used more
universally than it is?"  And, if C is so bad (in many people's opinion,
not mine), why is it used almost universally, despite its acknowledged,
real problems?

-- Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com)