Re: A Pascal Subset of Ada (was: Why Ada is Failing Socially)

[andrewd@chook.adelaide.edu.au (Andrew Dunstan)]

In article <1991Jun25.022849.18078@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>,
larryc@poe.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) writes:
|> Someone said something like
|> > A better comparison would be between Pascal & Ada.
|> 
|> I came to Ada from a Pascal background, & never understood why people
thought
|> it a complex or difficult language.  I was writing working code within a
|> week.  Within a month the basics had become engrained in my thinking so I
|> automatically used syntax correctly most of the time.  I started using
|> features like packages, which I thought (& still think) was a marvelous
|> invention & had absolutely no trouble with.  Other parts of Ada caused me
|> more problems, & I've never used tasking.
|> 

Actually, it's better than that. I recently wrote a reasonably substantial
program in Pascal, for a variety of reasons. I found that my Pascal code was 
much better than it used to be, largely because of the way Ada makes me
write code, and I have got used to that.

|> One of the biggest mistakes of AJPO (or whoever made the decision) was to
|> disallow Ada subsets.  I think they should have allowed ONE subset, 
|> corresponding roughly to Pascal and including packages.  We would have had 
|> inexpensive & commercially useful compilers much earlier, & disposed of the 
|> "Ada is huge" mindset.

This "Ada is too big" stuff is bunk. You just use the bits you want.
Still, a reasobale subset compiler would have to include generics IMHO,
or you would be too hamstrung. Leaving out tasking would be OK.

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#  Department of Computer Science   #   but thinking makes it so.     #
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