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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,5dadc78d94298b82 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-02-12 09:56:08 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.mindspring.net!not-for-mail From: Lao Xiao Hai Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Misconception about Ada? Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 09:50:05 -0800 Organization: AdaWorks Software Engineering Message-ID: <3A88224D.E58EDB32@ix.netcom.com> References: <3A872501.1186F238@uol.com.br> Reply-To: richard@adaworks.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 3f.35.b9.5c Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 12 Feb 2001 17:51:37 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:5180 Date: 2001-02-12T17:51:37+00:00 List-Id: We have to accept that there are some authors who produce serious works and others whose contributions are, at best, lightweight. It seems Mr. Raymon is not an authors to take seriously, particularly when he makes pronouncements about programming languages. On the other hand, there are some serious authors who study and write about programming languages. They do not all favor Ada, but they do tend to treat it fairly. Here are four books I have found to be fair in their treatment of Ada. Salus, Paul (Editor), Handbood of Programming Languages, Vol I, MacMillan Technical Publishing, 1998, ISBN 1-57870-009-4 Scott, Michael L., Programming Language Pragmatics, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA , 2000, ISBN 1-55860-442-1 Sebesta, Robert W., Concepts of Programming Languages, Addison-Wesley, 1999, ISBN 0-2-1-38596-1 Wilson, Leslie B and Clark, Robert G., Comparative Proramming Languages, Third Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2001, ISBN 0-20171012-9 In addition, I am discovering more authors willing to comment positively on Ada. Here is an example from a book on Embedded Systems Programming: "Ada is also an object-oriented language, though it is substantially different from C++. Ada was oringally design by the U.S. Department of Defense for the development of mission- critical military software. Despite being twice accepted as an international standard (Ada83 and Ada95), it has not gained much of a foothhold outside the defense and aerospace industries. And it is losing ground there in recent years. This is unfortunate because the Ada language has many features that would simplify embedded software development if used instead of C++." Barr, Michael, Programming Embedded Systems in C and C++, O'Reilly, 1999, ISBN 1-56592-354-5, page 10 Another example is the recent work on software testing by Bob Binder. Binder takes seriously the use of Ada in his selection of object-oriented languages. He even has some nice things to say about it in his book. Binder, Robert V, Testing Object-Oriented Systems, Addison-Wesley, 2000, ISBN 0-201-80938-9 It is unfortunate that publishers allow ignorant (at best uninformed) people such as Raymon to include such idiotic statements in their work. However, this phenomenon is not confined to programming languages. Each day I see, in editorial pages and other published works, even greater stupidity. Consider the motion picture industry. Hollywood thrives on distorting facts. It makes for good entertainment even though it persuades our children to believe things that are patently false, even absurd. Fortunately, there will continue to be some honest and scholarly works available to those with serious minds. Mr. Raymon's work is simply another collection of mispent effort that would be more worthy of the paper recycling bin than the bookshelf if it were a printed work. Now, where did I put that doggone bit bucket? Richard Riehle ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cesar Rabak wrote: > Eric Raymon is writting a book on-line and has a particular paragraph > which seems to me execessively perfunctory about Ada. > > Do you think it is worth to discuss this with him? > > http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/taoup/chapter3.html > > The pertaining part is "Why Not C?"