Re: "Forced to Use Ada"

[hsd@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Harry S. Delugach)]

In article <4624@hubcap.UUCP> ofut@hubcap.UUCP (A. Jeff Offutt) writes:
>
>C'mon, be careful what you say.  As a scientist/engineer, I do not want
>anybody *mandating* the use of technology without clear *technical* proof
>that that is in every case the best solution.

Can you give examples from any other field of engineering where there is
clear technical proof that a particular method is, in every case, the best
solution? I suspect that such a proof is impossible.
>
>Whether you are an Ada fan, a Modula-II fan, a C fan or even open-minded,
>it is very clear that the scientific community is not convinced that
>Ada (or any language) is the best technology for all applications.  Or
>for any application.

Whoah! Those last two are completely different. Is Ada the best technology
for all applications? Of course not. Who would have the unmitigated gall to
say that it was?

Is Ada the best languate for every application? Can you provide a proof?
Can you prove that there is a better language than Ada for every single
application? Easy enough, just start with a list of all possible applications,
and then tell me for each one what the best language is.  :-)

My point is that these blanket statements about Ada are all too common. How
about some discussion about application areas where Ada is clearly *not* the
best language, or some other discussion about application areas where it is
better (or at least, as good) as another language you would choose? For 
instance, there has been a lot of talk about Ada's inadequacies for real-time
programs. What are those inadequacies, and what language is better at handling
them? These are the kinds of questions I would like to see addressed in this
discussion.


-- 
                              Harry S. Delugach   
Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22901  U.S.A.
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