Re: Java vs. Ada - strings (was: C vs. Ada - strings)

["Marin D. Condic" <mcondic-nospam@quadruscorp.com>]

Ken Garlington wrote:
> 
> That doesn't seem very fair... how about testing the thesis with a nice,
> non-language-specific requirement? For example: "Create a list of the names
> of the people who participated in this thread." I hope that "list" is
> reasonably well-defined as to its methods, etc. (delete an item on the list,
> replace an existing item, add an item to the end of the list, select a
> specific item by its location in the list). What would that look like in
> Java and Ada, and what are the advantages/disadvantages of each? I could
> certainly seeing a ragged string array (in any language) as a reasonable
> approach to addressing this requirement...

That's a fair enough point. From my perspective, I'd utilize unbounded
strings for the names because speed isn't a concern and its just
generally easier to use unbounded strings. Keeping an array of pointers
to unbounded strings? Probably not. I'd use either a generic linked list
package or derive the name retaining element from an OO list package. Of
course, that's working from my own library of data structure code - not
some sort of Ada standard library.

A fair criticism would be that many data structures are available
commonly for other languages within development environments even though
these data structures are not part of the language. The fact that VC++
provides the MFC or Java has its class libraries sort of makes them a de
facto part of the language and all the theoretical arguments in the
world don't change the facts on the ground.

It would serve Ada well to have a class library of data structures that
is well documented and bundled with all of the major compilers.

MDC
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Marin David Condic - Quadrus Corporation - http://www.quadruscorp.com/
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