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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,5f529c91be2ac930 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 11232c,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid11232c,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,583275b6950bf4e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-02 14:20:27 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!lon1-news.nildram.net!195.149.20.147.MISMATCH!mercury.nildram.co.uk!not-for-mail Message-ID: <34Y+3LACEus+EwF5@nildram.co.uk> Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 22:20:02 +0100 From: Tom Welsh Reply-To: Tom Welsh Sender: Tom Welsh Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.ada,misc.misc Subject: Re: Using Ada for device drivers? (Was: the Ada mandate, and why it collapsed and died) References: <9fa75d42.0305011727.5eae0222@posting.google.com> <4F03C83A9C6A478F.688C62D70A2EADA3.068FE6EB5E241C3B@lp.airnews.net> <9fa75d42.0305020507.6d071f2b@posting.google.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: Turnpike Integrated Version 5.01 U NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.208.100.157 X-Trace: 1051910420 mercury.nildram.net 45173 213.208.100.157 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.java.advocacy:63068 comp.object:62600 comp.lang.ada:36890 misc.misc:13915 Date: 2003-05-02T22:20:02+01:00 List-Id: In article <9fa75d42.0305020507.6d071f2b@posting.google.com>, soft-eng writes >"John R. Strohm" wrote in message news:<4F03C83A9C6A478F.68 >8C62D70A2EADA3.068FE6EB5E241C3B@lp.airnews.net>... > >> 'first and 'last are necessary if you want to write loops over an arbitrary >> index type. 'succ and 'pred are absolutely critical if you want to step > >Yes, each and every single itsy-bitsy feature of Ada can be justified in some >way or the other. > >> The key is that, by putting them in the language, it is absolutely >> guaranteed that they will be implemented CORRECTLY, every time, with NO > >The key is that by putting all these large number of trivialities in >the language, you make sure the language will be very large. > That is a tradeoff that each language designer has to make. In the case of Ada, it was desirable to include a large set of features because one of the language's main objectives was to support programming in the large, including realtime and concurrent programmming. Then there is the compilation system... Pascal, for example, is much smaller and tidier. That makes it more suitable as a first language for students to learn - which was one of its design goals. On the other hand, its very simplicity has sometimes made unextended Pascal inappropriate for production systems. -- Tom Welsh