When did we split? (was Re: Anyone else actually like Ada?)

When did we split? (was Re: Anyone else actually like Ada?)

[cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!howland.]

The original topic of this thread asked if I like Ada. I do.

I like it for all of the same reasons that were already stated, and
adamantly disagree with some (but not all) of the nay-saying points.

However, what I fail to understand is when this Ada/OO split crept into
the software engineering community. Ada has been around for a long time.
The underlying principles have been around even longer. These principles
are the same for Ada as they are for any "true" OOP language. (No, I
won't define "true", that's why it's in quotes)

When we, and most of the Ada community, started looking at sensible
design paradigms that compatibly and effectively used the principles
beneath Ada, object-orientation was the obvious candidate of choice.
What I'm saying is that, back then, we _were_ the OO community. Or at
least a significant part of it. We worked together with the Smalltalk
and Lisp flavors folk. If the "us/them" mentality was present then, it
certainly escaped my notice.

I know Ada. I like it.
I know C++. I like it, too.
I like OO. I use it, regardless of which of the above languages is the
language of the week.

As a matter of fact, I've noticed that many C++ projects are going
through the same growing pains now, dealing with such issues as large
scale integration, that many of us in the existing Ada community have
experienced. Concerns like these are mostly language independent.

I guess what I'm really whining about (and preaching to the choir,
sorry) is for world peace - at least between the combatants in the
language wars. There is no valid reason that we can't all peacefully
coexist and learn from each other. In fact, we already have.

Now, hopefully this post is not an invitation for others to contribute
their views about how the DoD screwed up by not taking the right actions
to make Ada use more widespread earlier. That is not my intent. This
group has been through that territory many times before, and I believe
that most of us violently agree (or at least agree to disagree).

My apologies for waxing philosophic. Happens to the best of us!


-- 
Mike Berman
University of Maryland, Baltimore County     Fastrak Training, Inc.
berman@umbc.edu                              (301)924-0050
       The views represented in the above post are my own.