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=-1.9 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 29 Sep 92 14:41:29 GMT From: sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!csc.ti.com!tilde.csc.ti.com!mksol!mccall@ames.arc. nasa.gov (fred j mccall 575-3539) Subject: Re: Ada's (in)visibility in the engineering community Message-ID: <1992Sep29.144129.7312@mksol.dseg.ti.com> List-Id: In <61990005@acf3.NYU.EDU> schonber@acf3.NYU.EDU (Ed Schonberg) writes: >Relay-Version: version nyu B notes v1.6.1 1/11/90; site acf3.NYU.EDU >From: schonberg@cs.nyu.edu (Edmond Schonberg) >Date: 28 Sep 92 16:52 EDT >Subject: Ada's (in)visibility in the engineering community >Val Kartchner (cal@news.ccutah.edu) say: >> Well, it would seem that Mr. Schonberg was incorrect, since Bjarne >> Stroustrup has stated publicly numerous times that Ada was the >> inspiration for some of the features that he put in C++. I think you may have misattributed this bit, since I think it was mine and not Val's. I say 'think' because I'm not positive, since Val and I posted notes on this subject that were quite similar in several places. >My apologies for having missed this reference; the first edition of the >book had no mention of Ada, and in the public presentations I have >attended Ada was NEVER mentioned. It stands to reason that Ada would >have to be mentioned in connection with generics and exceptions. Even >though some prefiguration of these features appeared in older languages, >it is fair to say that Ada was the first reasonably widespread language >to develop these features fully. When I mentioned "the C++ community" I >did not mean Bjarne Stroustrup, whose erudition does not need my praise, >but the great majority of C++ programmers, who might have an instinctive >reaction against Ada, even when some features of their favorite language >owes something to it. We might as well aknowledge the extent to which >we influence each other. How else will we learn to write better >software? Actually, so far as I know, Bjarne has always been quite forthcoming about which parts of C++ were inspired by what languages (including Ada). He has made repeated public statements about this, and just recently posted about it again in comp.lang.c++. I'm curious; have you had large numbers of people from "the C++ community" denying that any parts of C++ were inspired by Ada? I ask this because, frankly, the only time I've ever seen anyone claim that nothing in C++ came from Ada is when Ada people attribute it to C++ people. I've never seen anyone from "the C++ community" say this. -- "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.