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: 103376,79bbf7e359159d0d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-04-09 09:22:09 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!cyclone2.usenetserver.com!news-out.usenetserver.com!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!news.mindspring.net!not-for-mail From: Larry Hazel Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: newbie can't get exceptions to work! Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 11:20:52 -0500 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Message-ID: <3AD1E164.2E2CB0B4@mindspring.com> References: <25%y6.2364$jz.201607@www.newsranger.com> <3ACDB29E.45B91316@earthlink.net> <9ao1if$cq9$1@taliesin.netcom.net.uk> <3ACFC902.115624A1@mindspring.com> <9aps7l$2g5$4@taliesin.netcom.net.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.9d.af Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 9 Apr 2001 16:21:14 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en,x-ns11F8K63r3NhQ,x-ns2r2e09OnmPe2 Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:6665 Date: 2001-04-09T16:21:14+00:00 List-Id: Ayende Rahien wrote: > > "Larry Hazel" wrote in message > news:3ACFC902.115624A1@mindspring.com... > > Ayende Rahien wrote: > > > > > > "Brian Rogoff" wrote in message > > > news:Pine.BSF.4.21.0104071403390.4484-100000@shell5.ba.best.com... > > > > On Sat, 7 Apr 2001, Robert A Duff wrote: > > > > > Brian Rogoff writes: > > > > > > I tell you what, design this next language, and I'm on board. > > > > > > > > > > I think I'm competent to design the language. What I don't know how > to > > > > > do is get people to use it. > > > > > > > > That's something of a crap shoot. Having a really good implementation > > > helps. > > > > I think a language targeted at systems programming (I assume you want > to > > > > design an Ada successor, not a high level language) that generated > code > > > > which is about as good as C code, has a decent chance of getting new > fans. > > > > > > > > > I suspect that to make a *popular* language these days, you have to > make > > > > > it look like C (yuck), > > > > > > > > Python isn't popular? Visual Basic? > > > > > > > > I don't think you need to go quite as far as Cyclone. Dump "begin end" > and > > > > use "{ }". If you keep the procedure/function distinction, use shorter > > > > names. Use [] for arrays. Use Pascal notation for pointers. Provide > some > > > > shortcut operators like C. Keep Ada's modes. OK, so the language may > look > > > > a bit different from Ada syntactically but I think it could stay in > the > > > > spirit of Ada semantically. > > > > > > I agree with all of the above, while begin-end may improve visibility, > no > > > programming language has to consider non-programmers as a target > audiance. > > > So {} as block statement, as well as some of C's nicest syntax features, > > > with all of Ada's safety behind it, you would have at least me as a fan. > > > > I personally think {} should be removed from the character set, or at > least > > require a minimum of 5 keystrokes to get either. And keep () for array > > indices. I have often used arrays as approximations of complex functions > in the > > early stages of development. Then, when the real algorithm is programmed > later, > > nothing changes except the package containing the array/function. > > I won't argue with that () statement, but why don't you like {}? > BTW, Alt+ would serve? it's only four keystrokes only fer each, > though. The use of {} is part of what makes C so unreadable to me. Every } is the end of something, but I always have a hard time figuring out what, and they are easy to miss. But the wierd operators and terseness in general are even worse. Larry