From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!peer01.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.nethere.com!news.nethere.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2015 02:07:56 -0600 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How many of you have Ada programming careers? From: csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson) Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2015 00:07:56 -0800 Message-ID: <1mdhp9g.1cvo3lsmkiwixN%csampson@inetworld.net> References: User-Agent: MacSOUP/2.8.3 (Mac OS X version 10.5.8 (PPC)) X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-QQP6njdMkAp2+e3pO/sq2pp6X83OG9wm+A/nfivrqN42BAbymD2+ZTQBbP2HVYNuUfcy4QpM5zODtjs!Mup7Fo+G6ZNkD+skJ8Qr5X1huXW0ij4W1Uh+YbYGN0jpN02i33ZjaiW2AUsamy5JhLMKnLQzVFrI!n9Ka1mAfPbhLCZYK7up1IUUrCetQ X-Complaints-To: abuse@nethere.com X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@nethere.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 2896 X-Received-Bytes: 3008 X-Received-Body-CRC: 1334711456 Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:28261 Date: 2015-11-07T00:07:56-08:00 List-Id: Nick Gordon wrote: > I'm currently learning Ada mostly as an exercise in learning strong > typing, but I also like the principle of strong, safe coding that resists > bugs and errors. Advertising aside, I have entertained over the last > several months learning Ada to a professional level, in the way that my > current undergraduate studies are pushing Ruby, Java, and C++. > > Since you guys (and I suppose possibly girls, too) are quite venerable > regarding Ada, I wonder how many of you use Ada at work? If you do, did > you start with Ada, or did you start as a systems programmer in C, and > move over to Ada because of the safety, or something like that? > > Just curious! Any other relevant discussion is welcomed and I would love > to chat about it. The last 20 or so years of my career, I worked in nothing but Ada. It was three implementation projects, maybe more, and a lot of language instruction. I tried to end my career without ever having written any C. Alas, I was forced toward the end to write one 6-line C program. I had tried to interface our Ada code to an operating system function for a Unix-link OS. With the C code I was able to show that the function was badly implemented; my interface code was good. Incidentally, the last project I worked on was a massively parallel Navy system (over 160 tasks). As I retired, the Navy had let a contract for the follow-on system. It would use a lot of our code (no reinventing the wheel - good) but the first thing that would be done is to convert our Ada code to C++. Charlie -- Nobody in this country got rich on his own. You built a factory--good. But you moved your goods on roads we all paid for. You hired workers we all paid to educate. So keep a big hunk of the money from your factory. But take a hunk and pay it forward. Elizabeth Warren (paraphrased)