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: 103376,7ee10ec601726fbf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-08 19:45:05 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!wn4feed!worldnet.att.net!135.173.83.71!wnfilter1!worldnet-localpost!bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3BC264B4.EBB8238@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: is Ada dying? References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 02:45:04 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.86.37.54 X-Complaints-To: abuse@worldnet.att.net X-Trace: bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net 1002595504 12.86.37.54 (Tue, 09 Oct 2001 02:45:04 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 02:45:04 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:13980 Date: 2001-10-09T02:45:04+00:00 List-Id: Michael Bode wrote: > > > Maybe this excerpt from the Jargon File explains why hackers are not > mainly coding in Ada: > (having programmed in C[++] some time I personally think is a good > reason to give Ada a try) > > Ada n. > > A Pascal-descended language that has been made mandatory for > Department of Defense software projects by the Pentagon. Hackers are > nearly unanimous in observing that, technically, it is precisely what > one might expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat; designed by > committee, crockish, difficult to use, and overall a disastrous, > multi-billion-dollar boondoggle (one common description wss "The PL/I > of the 1980s"). Hackers find Ada's exception-handling and > inter-process communication features particularly hilarious. Ada > Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who became the world's first > programmer while cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his > mechanical computing engines in the mid-1800s) would almost certainly > blanch at the use to which her name has latterly been put; the kindest > thing that has been said about it is that there is probably a good > small language screaming to get out from inside its vast, elephantine > bulk. Yes. Let's all use a language with common constructs like the following: float (*(*f)())(); This is "simple" C syntax for a pointer to a function returning a pointer to a function returning a float. The above example is obviously much more desireable than making a program readable. :-) The hackers mentioned above are nearly unanimous in seeing nothing wrong with the above example. Note that C expressions are most commonly parsed from the middle out, not left to right or right to left. This wonderful syntax is also valid in C++. Jim Rogers Colorado Springs, Colorado USA