Re: is ada dead?

[James Rogers <jimmaureenrogers@worldnet.att.net>]

Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> 
> In article <9i6lak$bqi$1@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, "Bobby D. Bryant" <bdbryant@mail.utexas.edu> writes:
> > It looks to me that the family C, C++, Java, and C# show a teleological
> > evolutionary trend toward becoming an Ada clone.
> 
> I don't think they will ever forsake their null-terminated strings.

That may be true for C, but C++ now has a String class, which is not
just a wrapper for the more primitive C strings. Java has a String
class which is also not null termintated. The Java String class is
closer to an Ada Unbounded string, with everything dynamically
allocated. 

Of course, the Java String suffers from the same inefficiencies as 
an Ada Unbounded string. For instance, you cannot edit a Java String.
There are Java methods to change the value of a character at a
specified position. The result, however, is not strictly an edited
string. It is an entirely new string, with all the characters copied
and the edited character replacing the original. In other words, if
you want to loop through all the characters in an existing 1024
character String, replacing each one, you will require the creation
and garbage collection of 1024 1024 character strings. Since Java
characters are all 16 bits, this means that you need to chew up
over 2 Megabytes of data to edit a 1024 character String.

Clearly, Java has abandoned the C null terminated string. Clearly
they have also abandoned any approximation of efficiency in String
handling.

Jim Rogers
Colorado Springs, Colorado USA