Re: Ada vs. C++

["Bobby D. Bryant" <bdbryant@mail.utexas.edu>]

Gautier wrote:

> Beware of not comparing a bad C++ compiler with a good Ada one (or
> reversely) and conclude something about the languages...

A contrary strategy, based purely on pragmatics, is to compare the two
compilers you would actually use. For example, a poor student might feel
restricted to the GNU or other free compilers, affording a fairly limited
choice, which could be narrowed down by experiment.

However, unless you're writing throw-away code I would agree with the
sentiment of an earlier poster: you might be more interested in using
whichever language tempts you to write the more maintainable code.

If speed is the only concern, you could simply write "Hello, world!" for
every project, no matter what the requirements call for, and when
criticized say "Yeah, it's got some bugs, but it sure runs fast!".  I urge
you to get in the habit of thinking in terms of correctness and
reliability rather than raw speed, and maintainability is, IMO, an
absolute essential for having correctness and reliability.

Bobby Bryant
Austin, Texas