Re: Ada The Best Language?

["Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@home.com>]

Bertrand Augereau wrote:
> > The best features of C++ still leave numerous faults in the final product:
> >   - No overflow checks
> >   - In some cases, no divide by zero checks (this feature may need to be
> >     enabled on your platform).
> 
> "You don't have to pay for what you don't use" is the principle.

What you save is far less than what you gain by having the check in place (the
cost of debugging is far costlier than the few cycles you save). As
someone else pointed out, you can disable this in production code if you like.

> >   - No array bounds checking, unless you use classes to do this for you
> >     (a very costly approach for small arrays)
> Plain wrong. Just look at STL's vector. You can use it with or without
> bounds checking depending your needs. And it's very efficient.

It may be "efficient enough" for larger arrays, but it is still very heavy
handed for a 6 character array ;-)  It doesn't have to be a large array
to be a problem.

...snip...
> > Or..
> >
> >     The Ada approach :
> >
> >     1. Build hang glider
> >     2. Fix identified bugs
> >     3. Repeat 2 as required
> >     4. Flight test
> 
> I guess you will agree the development process is not inherent to the
> language.
> You can build clean software in C++ or Java using the good methods, as well
> as in Ada.

The problem however, is that these other languages do a relatively poor
job of identifying other problems up front. To compensate, you site 
"methods" or "practices", which require volunteer effort. With Ada, the
checks are part of the compile process, like it or not.

> In the field I work (videogames), this is not the case, but I have planned
> in more critical domains (though not that critical), and I understand those
> constraints.
> I do think the main difference is that people who program in Ada are less
> numerous and therefore more competent than the vast majority of C++
> developers.

You assume a lot there.

> The subject line was not mine, I was just making the point that many people
> criticizing C++ don't know much of it.

Many would say the opposite is true. Many people simply do not want to learn
Ada and actually try to apply it. And this won't work overnight.. you need
to gain real experience with it before you appreciate its beauty. One or
two semesters in University is no substitute for real experience.
-- 
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://members.home.net/ve3wwg