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: fac41,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,3d3f20d31be1c33a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,2c6139ce13be9980 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public From: "Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz" Subject: Re: Interface/Implementation (was Re: Design by Contract) Date: 1997/09/18 Message-ID: <3421C4A1.4E00@gsg.eds.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 273862318 References: Organization: EDS MS Reply-To: nospam@gsg.eds.com Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.eiffel Date: 1997-09-18T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote: > > Don said > > < could choose which scheme, I would choose *reverse* dependency ordering. > At least then I could read listings in a sensible order - from high-level to > low-level.>> > > Can you clarify your experience with Ada here. it is sounding more and more > as though you are talking from imagination rather than experience. Although I find the ordering requirements in Ada to be a nuisance, I have to agree with you that the specifications should be done before the body. In all of the Ada that I wrote, the specifications had to pass a design review before we were allowed to start writing the body, and everything that I saw convinced me that not only was the requiring reasonable but that it was necessary. In an earlier article you drew an anology with reading a book. Well, I read novels in a linear fashion, but I skip around in text books. In particular, technical literature frequently refers the reader to an appendix for details. I believe that most people read code the same way: the choice of what to read and in what order depends on what they are attempting to learn. In language with an arbitrary declaration order, I find the declarations at the end more often than the beginning. In some cases the code is more readable if the declarations are split. The acid test is to throw it at someone who's never seen it before and see if he has trouble understanding it. I can't comment on Eiffel, but I definitely consider Ada to be more readable and maintainable than C, Pascal or FORTRAN. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Senior Software SE The values in from and reply-to are for the benefit of spammers: reply to domain eds.com, user msustys1.smetz or to domain gsg.eds.com, user smetz. Do not reply to spamtrap@library.lspace.org