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: 103376,4871bb700d475964 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-06 22:30:12 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.stealth.net!204.127.161.2.MISMATCH!wn2feed!worldnet.att.net!135.173.83.71!wnfilter1!worldnet-localpost!bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3B1F11FE.50619703@worldnet.att.net> From: James Rogers X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: an interested business-oriented programmer References: <3B1EED20.C607AB28@worldnet.att.net> <3B1F09F8.A6521EEF@PublicPropertySoftware.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 05:30:11 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.82.142.216 X-Complaints-To: abuse@worldnet.att.net X-Trace: bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net 991891811 12.82.142.216 (Thu, 07 Jun 2001 05:30:11 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 05:30:11 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8288 Date: 2001-06-07T05:30:11+00:00 List-Id: Al Christians wrote: > > But, if we are talking about business-oriented programming, > does Aonix implement interfaces.COBOL and Annex F ("information > systems", which includes decimal data)? > > The competition is COBOL and/or either Java or C++ with a decimal > numbers class library. > I do not have the answer to that. I was using ObjectAda on the PharLap ETS operating system for robotic controls. How much of an interface to COBOL will you get with Java or C++? The only language interface defined for either of those languages is C. Even without some Annex F, Ada supports business applications better than C++ or Java. What kind of fixed point numbers are defined as part of either language? (Does the answer "none" come to mind?) Let's talk a little about execution efficiency too. C++ and Ada implementations exhibit similar execution efficienies, but both still dramatically beat Java. I know a lot of effort has been spent to improve the efficiency of Java Virtual Machines. Improvements have been made. Parity has not been achieved. Even more important is the fact that most common Java programming idioms are terribly inefficient. For instance, editing each character in a 1024 character Java string will require 2 Megabytes of memory, and involve the creation and garbage collection of 1024 strings. The way around this is to convert the Java String object to a Java StringBuffer object, perform all the edits, then convert the StringBuffer object to another String object, requiring only about 6 Kilobytes of memory and the creation ( and garbage collection ) of three objects. This is clearly faster than the use of only Java Strings, but also slower than editing an Ada string. I do not see how C++ and Java can be considered close to Ada's capabilities in the Business arena. C++ lacks Ada's numeric types as well as any ability to interface with COBOL. Java mirrors C++'s deficiencies topped off with a nasty dose of inefficiency. COBOL is still a highly respectable language for business systems. COBOL is optimized for large scale transaction processing applications. The biggest problem facing COBOL is its aging workforce. Few people are learning COBOL. Some companies are feeling forced to develop solutions in other languages just so that they can easily hire developers and maintainers for their code. With that attitude, those employers are often going to choose the current fad language rather than make a strict technical decision. Another sad fact is that most employers looking to replace COBOL have never heard of Ada. Jim Rogers Colorado Springs, Colorado USA