Re: KSLOC estimates Ada vs C++

["Robert I. Eachus" <eachus@mitre.org>]

     I'll echo what has already been said, but make two additional
comments.
First, if you implement the same algorithm in both Ada and C++, the
usual result is that if you deal with the possible error conditions, the
Ada code is smaller, otherwise the C++ wins.  But we are talking a very
small (order of 10% either way) effect.

     Second, the major difference you are likely to see is where the
application specific libraries (packages or classes) are available in
one language and not the other, or the library is more suited to the
actual problem statement.  For example, when doing this type of
comparison, you often have to be willing to edit the requirements in the
area of terminal or screen IO.  Neither language is obviously better in
this area, but you have to be willing to accept the langauge defaults. 
Take a program that reads in floating point numbers.  Ada and C++ have
different rules for things like non-base ten values.  You would have to
do a lot of extra work to get C++ to accept 16#FFFF.FFFF#E-23, and some
extra work to get Ada to reject it.
-- 

                                        Robert I. Eachus

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