Re: Language design by by committee ( was Re: Try J# ( was Re: J# is there ))

[mjsilva697@earthlink.net (Mike Silva)]

Dale Stanbrough <dale@cs.rmit.edu.au> wrote in message news:<dale-400CAE.17165114102001@mec2.bigpond.net.au>...
> Israel Raj T wrote:
> 
> > Tony Hoare was an early member of the design committee until he left
> > in disgust. In his ACM Turing Award lecture "The Emperor's Old Clothes
> > " he says just that. 
> 
> Tony Hoare left because he thought the language was way too big.
> Later on he wrote a foreward to a book in which he recanted this
> view, and hope people would have the opportunity to use Ada (I
> think he said "this fine language", but I can't be sure).
> 
> Dale

A google search finds this:


 Here is the text of Mr. Hoare's foreward to an Ada book in 1987.  You
 may judge for yourself whether he was as anti-Ada as you suggest.

 C.A.R. Hoare's comments in the foreward to Ada Language and
Methodology

"  'I enjoyed reading the Algol 60 report;  it taught me a lot about
programming.'  This
is the comment of a data processing manager of a major motor
manufacturing company,
who had no conceivable prospect of ever using the language to program
a computer. It is
a most perceptive comment, because it describes an important goal in
the design of a new
programming language:  that it should be an aid in specification,
description, and design of
programs, as well as in the construction of reliable code.

This was one of the main aims in the design of the language which was
later given the name
Ada.  As a result, the language incorporates many excellent structural
features which have
proved their value in many precursor languages such as Pascal and
Pascal Plus.

The combination of many complex features into a single language has
led to an unfortunate
delay in availability of production-quality implementations.  But the
long wait is coming to
an end, and one can now look forward to a rapid and widespread
improvement in programming
practice, both from those who use the language and from those who
study its concepts and structures.

I hope that this book will contribute directly to these ideals, which
have inspired many of the other
books in the same series. It continues the tradition of the series in
that it describes how the language
can be used as the target of sound programming methodology, embracing
the full life-cycle of a programming
project.  It explains not just the features and details of the
language, but also their purpose
and method of effective use.

The complexities and difficulties are not glossed over;  they are
explained within the appropriate context,
with hints on how to avoid any consequent problems.  I hope the book
will be useful, both to those who have the
privilege or obligation to use the language, and to those who have the
interest and curiosity to understand and
appreciate its rationale. "

               from the foreward to Ada Language and Methodology
                                                 David A. Watt, Brian
A. Wichmann, and William Findlay,
                                                 Prentice-Hall
International Series in Computer Science ISBN 0-13-004078-9
                                                 Published in 1987


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