Re: Where is the elusive jump command?

[Gary Scott <Gary.L.Scott@lmtas.lmco.com>]

"Marin D. Condic" wrote:
> 
> David Starner wrote:
> > You might be surprised, though. The Comp Sci department still offers
> > Fortran 77 (taught by the prof who was a graduate student when Fortran
> > first appeared), and the Engineering Department forces all engineering
> > students to take Fortran 90 (Intro to Engineering Programming). That CS
> > Fortran class has more enrollment than the Ada class, too.
> >
> Aside from the fact that there is tons of Fortran code lying around
> already, is there any reason why "number crunching" or
> "scientific/engineering software" couldn't be taught/done in Ada? My
> Fortran experience was back in the Fortran 77 days and I don't recall
> anything being in the language that couldn't be done just as well - if
> not better - in Ada95. (Especially given Ada's type capabilities and
> precise definitions for math ops, numeric attributes, etc.)
> 
> And if the only argument against it is the tons of existing math
> libraries, then theres Ada's interface capability to argue in its favor.
> 
> Its a market that could be tapped - and maybe one that isn't already
> anti-Ada biased. Hmmmmmmmmm........

The C++ (templates) guys are saying the exact same thing.  Meanwhile,
most of us "number crunchers" (I'm also a GUI tool builder) are busy
updating to Fortran 95 module-based solutions, and the Fortran standard
committee is busy designing "Object Oriented Fortran" (and given the
constraints, doing a pretty good job of it).  Of course the oldest
successful high-level language is going to have baggage.  The standard
officially identifies "deprecated" features and programmers are
encouraged not to use them (and most don't).  

My company probably writes as much or more Ada code as any other.  We
also write a lot of stuff with Visual Fortran (95).  But I can tell you
that Ada is losing the battle to C++ (in those embedded processor
domains) while Fortran plods along at about the same level.  The
reason?  Getting huge quantities of "experienced" C<++> newhires is
easier than with Ada.

P.S. My opinions, not speaking for my employer, of course.

> 
> MDC
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