Re: Top 10 Language Constructs (Ada)

[Andrew Hately <hat@cfmu.eurocontrol.be>]

Bruno Gustavs wrote:
> 
> What do you think are the top ten language constructs in Ada?

Previously I used c and c++. I have also worked in fortran and basic
(many) as well as tinkering with bcpl and various assembly languages.
For me:

1 packages
 - separate spec and body
   (I laugh at c++ with its puny class. 
    "Hey, object, I can see your inner workings")
 - decent name space management
 - its just the natural way to do it


2 ability to declare procedures other than at the global level
 (vs c where everything is global or global with a hidden name)


3 enumerated types and case statements with no "when others"


4 types
 - also arrays with known size
   (not just pointers)
 - also run time checking


5 agregate assignement


6 named parameters in procedure/function calls and 
  named values in agregates


7 the compiler resolves calling, not the linker
 (bonus: overloading by function return type)


8 generics
 (vs c macros, especially when debugging)


9 the compiler can work out what to compile and in what order


10 a syntax in which common typing errors do not yield other, 
   unexpected but syntactically valid programs



Andrew