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 X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-31 02:33:23 PST Message-ID: <3B667B3A.B208D6DE@amsjv.com> Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 10:32:42 +0100 From: Philip Anderson Organization: Alenia Marconi Systems ISD X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> <9k3l9r$10i2$1@pa.aaanet.ru> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit NNTP-Posting-Host: cwmwkn0612.cwmbran.gecm.com X-Trace: 31 Jul 2001 10:23:07 GMT, cwmwkn0612.cwmbran.gecm.com Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!212.74.64.35!colt.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!btnet-peer0!btnet-peer1!btnet-feed3!btnet!newreader.ukcore.bt.net!pull.gecm.com!cwmwkn0612.cwmbran.gecm.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10851 Date: 2001-07-31T10:32:42+01:00 List-Id: Gary Lisyansky wrote: > > Dubious. In reality, only C/C++/Java use this "type first" order in > declarations. Pascal uses Ada- like syntax, VB uses even more verbose > construct (Dim Count As Integer) and so on. I've never heard anyone complain > about "var name first" declaration convention. CORAL 66 had the type first, and I had to get used to the Ada syntax; I must say that now I do prefer it, because it is easier to just pick out the variable and constant names on a first reading, whereas the type is more of an implementation detail. It's not a big deal, Ada had to choose one way or the other, but it is not worth changing Ada now; having two different forms of Ada, one requiring pre-processing to convert it into the other, must be a non-starter - in "Day : Date", which would be the type, without looking for a pre-processor request? (French keywords give no such ambiguity) For myself, I don't think that syntax differences have much effect on the ease of learning a new language; any two languages will be different here, but there will also be much more significant differences - for Ada, user-defined types, the procedure/function distinction, no need to use pointers etc. It's the same with natural languages; changing the syntax of French to match English would not really encourage more English speakers to learn French. -- hwyl/cheers, Philip Anderson Alenia Marconi Systems Cwmbr�n, Cymru/Wales