Re: Where is the elusive jump command?

[Gautier <gautier.demontmollin@maths.unine.ch>]

"Marin D. Condic" wrote:

> 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.)

Even Ada 83 is a better choice than Fortran for scientific software
(experience using DEC Ada). The interfacing with LAPACK is easy, the
time spared due to strong typing is unvaluable (~1 year in my thesis
project so far). A "small" separate program for solving a nonlinear
equation with a special finite element method took less than 3 hours
last week to write from A to Z and pass the compilation phase
that cleared tens of bugs only an Ada compiler can catch. Once passed,
the program worked (the right results!). This is an almost miraculous
case but would I have programmed the same in Fortran, I would be still
searching bugs now (which number, which coefficient, where, error in
the calculations to prepare the method ? etc. etc.).

About the numeric attributes: they are effectively a plus e.g. for
portable iterative methods. (float'epsilon etc.)

_____________________________________________
Gautier  --  http://members.xoom.com/gdemont/