Re: bitwise comparators

["DuckE" <nospam_steved@pacifier.com>]

Alexander Van Hecke <alexke@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3882FC1C.2BA8C959@hotmail.com...
> > I'd also like to point out that the "while" construct you are using is
> > common for 'C' or Pascal, but in Ada you could use a "loop" construct
with
> > "exit when"
> >
>
> thank you all for your response!
> As many of you have pointed out, I could have used exit when ...
> But as you probably noticed, I have a C background and I'm not that
familiar
> with Ada.  I think it's a nice feature of Ada that you can write
'readable'
> code, but IMHO Ada takes a lot longer to learn, there are more constructs,
> keywords, etc...  In a word, the language is more complicated, yet not
> necessarily more powerfull (hope I don't get flamed for this :-)).   In C
you'd
> have one while loop, and you'd put your condition in the while expression
and
> that's it.  Nothing more to learn about it!
> What's your opinion on this?
>
> alex
>

I've done projects in both C and Ada, and when given a choice on a new
project I choose Ada.  Yes it takes a while to learn all of the nuances of
Ada, but the same is true of C.

There are numerous bugs I have run across in C programs that have been a
bear to track down, that are very visible in Ada.

Here's a few examples:

  for( i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i++ );
  {
    printf( "Value of i is %d\n", i );
  }

Gives the output:

  Value of i is 0

To "spot the bug" here's the equivalent Ada code:

for i in 0 .. 9 loop end loop
begin
  ada.text_io.put( "Value of i is " );
  ada.integer_text_io.put( i );
  ada.text_io.new_line;
end;

An experienced C programmer might see that extra semicolon instantly when
looking at the source code, but when digging for a needle in a haystack in a
large body of existing code, I personally can do without this kind of trap.

There are several other examples of simple C coding errors that can trip you
up, but you probably get my point.

SteveD