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=0.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9c86eb13dd395066 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Tom Moran Subject: Re: CRC in Ada? Date: 1997/03/23 Message-ID: <3335D8F0.106F@bix.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 227883708 References: <1997Mar2.220652@nova.wright.edu> <331bf6ce.2832564@news.logica.co.uk> <332B5EBD.3D9E@worldnet.att.net> <332C9185.61C1@worldnet.att.net> <332F5CC8.6D7C@worldnet.att.net> <3332CA3D.379F@bix.com> Organization: InterNex Information Services 1-800-595-3333 Reply-To: tmoran@bix.com Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-03-23T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Sorry, > couldn't read a sequential file should have said "couldn't read an existing sequential file". Having learned Ada after leaving school, I was interested in using it in the real world, not in a classroom excercise. I assume there are others who are doing real tasks and might give Ada a try, but not much of one if Ada appears, rightly or wrongly, highly unsuitable. > As for the "if I had known that Ada could not do X, I would have switched > to C", either this is entirely non-serious, or if serious, then it seems > odd to me. If you would switch to C on the basis of such a trivial excuse, > why bother to need an excuse at all, why not just use C in the first place? Surely an inability to do X in Ada would not be a "trivial excuse" for not using Ada to do X. And the fact that X can in fact be done, but only by avoiding the obvious approaches and using non-portable vendor specific features, may be a saving grace theoretically, but not if the customers have already left the store. (Also, the original comment did not say 'switch to C', but rather "stayed with ...".) The point is that you don't get many chances to sell curious non-Ada programmers on Ada, and it's highly important that their early experiences are not turn-offs. Looking at several Ada texts from my local computer bookstore I see no warning that Sequential_IO may not work or that it may be extremely slow. I suggest that any compiler vendor who hopes to have Ada novices among his customers (ie any vendor who hopes for a growing market) should make great efforts not to give nasty surprises.