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,ea8ea502d35ca2ce X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-08 09:41:19 PST Path: newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!212.74.64.35!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!server3.netnews.ja.net!newshost.central.susx.ac.uk!news.bton.ac.uk!not-for-mail From: John English Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Beginner's Language? Date: Tue, 08 May 2001 17:01:19 +0100 Organization: University of Brighton Message-ID: <3AF8184F.3D7ADD74@brighton.ac.uk> References: <9cukad$nn68@news-dxb> <9d1ilh$g397v$1@ID-22205.news.dfncis.de> <9d22ji$g7jr5$1@ID-22205.news.dfncis.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: pcje.it.bton.ac.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: saturn.bton.ac.uk 989337682 9856 193.62.183.48 (8 May 2001 16:01:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@bton.ac.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 May 2001 16:01:22 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:7332 Date: 2001-05-08T16:01:22+00:00 List-Id: I am well known as an Ada advocate, but... Jochen Schmidt wrote: > 1) The things Perl is optimized for is not the kind of work I want do be > paid for. I think Perl is ok for an admin that needs to automate some > things or probably some bad Webdesigner who knows nothing better. I tend to use Perl *a lot* for a variety of jobs. Why don't I use Ada for these? Well... 1) Perl is good for string slinging. If I want to slurp a whole file into a string and do pattern-based substitutions or chop it up into an array of smaller strings, it's easy to do so. 2) Perl has associative arrays (hashes). I really wish Ada did. I don't want to have to reinvent the wheel, or use a proprietary package to avoid doing so. And I use hashes all the time. 3) Perl has a lot of support for other things: databases, HTML, XML, sockets, and so on. There's usually a tool I can use for most problems I'm faced with. I probably would use Ada if I could solve the problems I use Perl for as easily as I can in Perl. Sometimes, when Perl won't do, I turn to Python instead. If I'm writing code that involves sockets and URLs and graphics (but little string-slinging), I use Java because Java has a good set of tools for jobs like that. And so on. Maybe one day, Ada will have a rich standard set of APIs that will cover all the bases, but in the meantime it lacks standard data structures, GUI support, networking, XML... despite the efforts that various individuals have made to remedy these defects. And that is a serious limitation IMHO. > I'am neither an admin nor a Webdesigner. Me neither. > 2) There is no real practical side when talking on programming languages > if a language is bad on it's language-theoretic concepts it cannot be > _really_ good for practical issues. That's like saying a Swiss Army knife is a "bad" tool. It may not be as good as a scalpel or a power screwdriver for particular jobs, but it's better than either if you want to get a splinter out of your hand or open a bottle of wine (or both :-). ----------------------------------------------------------------- John English | mailto:je@brighton.ac.uk Senior Lecturer | http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/je Dept. of Computing | ** NON-PROFIT CD FOR CS STUDENTS ** University of Brighton | -- see http://burks.bton.ac.uk -----------------------------------------------------------------