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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9ab76c2183ecc054 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-01-03 08:17:31 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!cyclone-sjo1.usenetserver.com!news-out.usenetserver.com!cyclone-west.rr.com!news.rr.com!news-west.rr.com!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!news.mindspring.net!not-for-mail From: Marin David Condic Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada to C Translator Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 11:16:08 -0500 Organization: Quadrus Corporation Message-ID: <3A535048.6105400C@acm.org> References: <92fk1v0cou@drn.newsguy.com> <92fqlt$h8d$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <3A4CF58B.A8FF223C@collins.rockwell.com> <92qfj7$7l9$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <3A5218FB.41FDD@collins.rockwell.com> <3A531C4D.7AB64631@acm.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: d1.56.b5.5b Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 3 Jan 2001 16:14:39 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:3611 Date: 2001-01-03T16:14:39+00:00 List-Id: An excellent point. PtC was actually capable of generating code in a handful of different languages so in a sense, it became its own "programming language". Most of the Ada that was generated was essentially viewed as a "high level assembly language" and so readability was not as much of a concern. However, it still produced reasonably readable code and there were reasons why it periodically needed to be looked at. (Verification and hand modification were two big reasons.) In an environment where you have something like PtC, the advantage you get is a kind of lower level documentation that helps you to understand the system. I think the actual source code starts becoming less of an issue in this case. However, I don't think that something like PtC would be useful for any and all applications. It worked well for us because we had a very narrow usage, so the diagrams could become really specialized. I'd doubt that for more general kinds of things it would work as well. UML seems to be too high an abstraction to get code from unless you are somehow hand-coding part of it. Then the same rules for readability would apply to the code. Obviously, the benefits you cite are equally important considerations for long-lived systems. MDC Ken Garlington wrote: > Your mentioning the F119 raises a question in my mind that I probably should > have asked a long time ago. IIRC, the Pratt & Whitney gang used Pictures to > Code extensively for the engine control. Did the advantages you describe > below (easy to read, etc.) really matter in that case, given that Ada > essentially became an intermediate language? Now that the rest of the world > seems to be catching on to this idea (automatic code generation from UML, > etc.), I wonder if that trend is going to make other attributes of > text-based languages more important - portability, availability and > robustness of associated compilers, etc. No one extols the readability of > J-code, do they? -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic - Quadrus Corporation - http://www.quadruscorp.com/ Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ q u a d r u s c o r p . c o m Visit my web site at: http://www.mcondic.com/ "Giving money and power to Government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." -- P. J. O'Rourke ======================================================================