From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 18 Oct 91 20:56:28 GMT From: csus.edu!beach.csulb.edu!nic.csu.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zapho d.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu Subject: Re: Why ADA is not prevalent yet Message-ID: <1991Oct18.155628.521@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil> List-Id: >I am currently working as a software specialist for the government. I am >a freshly graduate has been working for two years. While in school, I was >taught that Fortran will become obsolete and Pascal and ADA will replace >this "ancient dinosau". However, to my dismay, this dinosau is still alive >and walking. What is wrong with the most "sophisticated nation" in the >world that still using the ancient language of Fortran? If you really want to know why people still use Fortran, you might try asking in comp.lang.fortran. The people who use it are more likely to know why they use it than the people in comp.lang.ada who don't use it. Actually, I expect Pascal to disappear before Fortran. In the small systems where Pascal might find a useful niche, it's losing the battle to C and for large projects it can't beat ADA. Soon decent ADA tools will become available for smaller systems and even die-hard C-haters will have an alternative to Pascal. Back to Fortran. While no sane person would argue that it's 'better' than ADA, Fortran has some advantages. The compiler is often effectively free, since old systems already have one and new systems require one for maintenance of existing code. Many systems evolve rather slowly so that ADA's saving in software maintenance does not justify rewriting the entire system. Despite popular belief, many government labs are not rolling in money. The purchase of new compilers is a sigificant investment. Although there are a lot of bad Fortran programmers, as has been mentioned, there are also a lot of good, experienced people who are quite fluent in Fortran. They get the job done quite nicely in Fortran. If I need to write a short program in 45 seconds I can do it. It takes me longer if I have to declare all my variables, struggle with I/O operations, worry about what libraries to include, and think about the scope of my variables. Fortran is crude. For a large number of tasks, it lacks the expressive power necessary. But it works. I'd like to hear more from the original poster. What sort of projects has he been exposed to where Fortran is being used? What reasons has he been given for the use of Fortran? Is the ADA mandate being violated? Are programmers using the language in which they are most fluent to express themselves when doing small jobs, much as one person might prepare a memo using Microsoft Word while another prefers WordPerfect? Or are large projects being done in an archaic language because of intransigence of a few old fogies? On a personal note. One of my duties is the maintenance of some old Fortran code on a PDP-11 which controls some specialized hardware. This system is still used because it is effective for its purpose and the maintenance costs of the hardware and software have not yet exceeded the price for which equivalent hardware could be purchased for a more modern platform. I was recently asked about the possibility of hiring an entry level person to handle these duties to free me up for more interesting and more important things. My response was that any young person dumb enough to want to work on that equipment was not the sort of person we wanted to hire. So, if you are a recent graduate and somebody is trying to train you in Fortran, get out! Leave the Fortran stuff to those of us who already know the language. My guess is that there are plenty of places where real software engineers can find productive employment. Am I wrong? -- Speaking only for myself!