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,be23df8e7e275d73 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-08-11 17:22:23 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newshub2.home.com!news.home.com!news2.rdc2.tx.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3B75CF39.A78FEA9@home.com> From: Larry Elmore X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.7 i586) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Proving Correctness (was Java Portability) References: <9kea9a$lsc$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9keduf$qvc$1@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> <9kelv1$riq$1@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> <3B707688.340B8A70@home.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 00:22:22 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 65.10.25.74 X-Complaints-To: abuse@home.net X-Trace: news2.rdc2.tx.home.com 997575742 65.10.25.74 (Sat, 11 Aug 2001 17:22:22 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 17:22:22 PDT Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:11802 Date: 2001-08-12T00:22:22+00:00 List-Id: nicolas wrote: > > "Larry Elmore" a �crit dans le message news: > 3B707688.340B8A70@home.com... > > How many standard, cross-compiler, cross-platform libraries exist for > > _any_ language? I'd be willing to bet more would be in Fortran than any > > other language. > > You are right, but I doubt that helps Ada a lot. No it doesn't, unfortunately. > > It's been no more "hyped" than any other OO language. If this is your > > argument, why is C++ still around? > > Microsoft ? I'd say inertia, myself. C++ got popular largely, IMO, because C was popular and it built on that base. It _appeared_ to minimize the risk and the learning curve for an OO language. I think one of the reasons Java got popular was because it came along just as many companies and individuals were looking for an alternative to C++ after learning the hard way what kinds of problems it has as a language. Partly due to Java's superfical resemblance to C/C++, its (still not-quite-realized) promise of easy portability, and its fortunate timing, Java took off. > > I think your second point is bogus. Reinventing the wheel goes on > > everywhere and in every language (and often because the developer feels > > he/she can do a better job than whoever came before). > > It's obvious to me that this is a counterproductive attitude. > People fight or at least should fight with very good reasons against this > kind of developer's feelings. Yes, but managing programmers has frequently been compared to herding cats, and with good reason! I think the fact that there is no officially sanctioned standard for many commonly used libraries contributes to this. I think this is even more important for a standards committee to do than any changes to the language itself. Larry