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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,fa2cc518ef3b992c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Stanley R. Allen" Subject: Re: scripting/extension language for Ada (was : Re: tagged types extensions) Date: 2000/02/04 Message-ID: <389B5C01.D484CF2@raytheon.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 581709468 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <389207CC.C16D80E8@averstar.com> <38971028.BB16D8A2@earthlink.net> <3899F757.FAE131B3@free.fr> X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: NASA, Kennedy Space Center Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-02-04T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Ray Blaak wrote: > > I think that Ada as a scripting language is not a good idea. > > The philosophy of Ada caters to careful design and implementation, strong > typing, etc. Ada is a language useful for making well crafted software. > > Scripting languages, on the other hand, tend to be used for small, quickly > written programs, and good ones tend to have a succinct powerful notation. This is bad reasoning, probably based on poor observation. Scripts are becoming a much bigger part of the software development scene, and it's a shame that the script languages in use now are based so heavily on the hacker mentality. In our project, scripts have gotten very large and are used for many critical capabilities. Some are thousands of lines long. We maintain these scripts in our CM database just like the Ada, C, and FORTRAN code. They have long life -- over 5 years. They must be documented because they are updated by many hands over a long period of time. Sound familiar? The philosophy of Ada, if not all its details, needs to migrate to the world of script languages, because scripts ARE software -- the same rules and pitfalls apply. I question your criterion for a "good" script language -- "succinct powerful notation". Isn't this what we've come to learn as a receipe for incomprehensibility? > > I consider scsh (Scheme shell) to be an ideal scripting language: > > [cut] > > Alternatively, Perl does just fine in a pinch. > I can't comment on scsh, but I've seen enough Perl to know that it is a hacker's language front-to-back. I've heard rumors that Python is better than most in terms of supporting "software engineering" in a script language. -- Stanley Allen mailto:Stanley_R_Allen@raytheon.com