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: 103376,56250291936154a0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Gautier Subject: Re: Where is the elusive jump command? Date: 2000/03/31 Message-ID: <38E46227.4C32873A@maths.unine.ch>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 604704876 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <38D771CA.D41AF9B5@port.ac.uk> <8bq7ku$mc8$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <38E0E723.C39C392@quadruscorp.com> <8brfm4$4uc$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <38E240D1.DB36C983@quadruscorp.com> <38E2333B.2109F2BB@lmtas.lmco.com> <8bu4ek$412$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <8bul06$9aa1@news.cis.okstate.edu> <38E396E7.45941282@quadruscorp.com> X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: 31 Mar 2000 10:30:32 +0100, mac13-32.unine.ch Organization: Maths - Uni =?iso-8859-1?Q?Neuch=E2tel?= MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-03-31T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: "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/