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=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a59300e1cca1082c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-09-19 10:43:25 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!easynews!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sea-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Brian Rogoff Subject: Re: Safe C++ In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20010919102107.L4954-100000@shell5.ba.best.com> References: <3BA7A45D.186EE27A@adaworks.com> <20010919072904.O10277-100000@shell5.ba.best.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:43:24 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.184.139.136 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: sea-read.news.verio.net 1000921404 206.184.139.136 (Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:43:24 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:43:24 GMT Organization: Verio Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:13183 Date: 2001-09-19T17:43:24+00:00 List-Id: On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, Chad Robert Meiners wrote: > On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, Brian Rogoff wrote: > > Rather than just snipe from the side at people trying to do better, take > > a look at > > > > http://www.cs.cornell.edu/projects/cyclone/ > > > > and consider that it certainly has some features which are arguably better > > than the Ada alternatives. > > Which features are better than the Ada alternatives? ^-- arguably Pattern matching Parametrically polymorphic functions Tuples I think region based memory management is a win too, and could probably be fit onto Ada without too much disruption. > Cyclone doesn't appear to help reduce the number of pointers that the > programmer has to manage which I consider to be a major drawback with the > language. Ada has advantages here, no doubt, but Cyclone makes the manipulations much safer than C or C++. It's hardly fair to compare the unsafety of Cyclone pointers with raw C! As much as I prefer Ada to C, it's clear that some of these Safer C/C++ variants, especially ones which don't try to follow C++ too much, have a lot to offer. Ada advocates can start seeming awfully provincial, with their allergies to anything smacking of C. Now, if you were to complain that Cyclone is another one of these miserable flat languages without nested function definitions, I'd cheer you on. :-) -- Brian > > Putting my "Ada fan" hat on, I'd say that some of the work on region based > > memory management should find it's way into some Ada dialect, maybe even > > into the standard. And I really think pattern matching and some other > > features of modern (read HM-typed, functional/declarative) languages > > should find their way into an Ada successor. If only the Cyclone guys had > > started with Ada, or even the SPARK subset! > > > > It's really unfortunate that Ada hasn't spawned lots of research > > dialects, like C family languages have. > > > > -- Brian > > > > > > > - Chad R. Meiners > >