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From: andrew@bugalugs.apana.org.au (Andrew Dunstan)
Newsgroups: 
 comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.programming,comp.lang.c++,comp.object
Subject: Re: Why don't large companies use Ada?
Date: 27 Nov 1994 11:55:16 GMT
Organization: The Bugalugs Machine
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References: <3a6oc5$dkh@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
 <3alh02$rgo@holly.csv.warwick.ac.uk> <3alk8j$ok7@calvin.st-and.ac.uk>
 <3avnpi$1rf@sage.csv.warwick.ac.uk> <3b2bfn$487@calvin.st-and.ac.uk>
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Xref: nntp.gmd.de comp.lang.ada:17032 comp.lang.c:70152 comp.programming:13151
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Date: 1994-11-27T11:55:16+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <3b2bfn$487@calvin.st-and.ac.uk>, ajry@st-andrews.ac.uk 
(Alistair James Robert Young) writes:
|> In article <3avnpi$1rf@sage.csv.warwick.ac.uk>,
|> Jules <csusb@csv.warwick.ac.uk> wrote:
|> >In article <3alk8j$ok7@calvin.st-and.ac.uk>,
|> >	ajry@st-andrews.ac.uk (Alistair James Robert Young) writes:
|> >>PS, if you think your Pascal course is bad, pity them at St. Andrews:
|> >>s-algol,developed there,only used there, completely useless for any practical
|> >>purpose!
|> >
|> >Is (Standard) Pascal useful for any practical purpose?
|> >A language where every time you wish to read a string you must write your own
|> >procedure to do it? And all strings are fixed length?
|> >A language which does not allow random access to files?
|> >I could go on....
|> >
|> 
|> Well, at least you pick up some things that might be useful later on with
|> Turbo Pascal or C. Does anyone still use algol out there? For anything? And
|> when this dialect tries to implement arrays (called 'vectors' for some
|> bizarre reason), or pointers - well, does the word 'bastardized' mean
|> anything? :-)
|> 

I'm probably one of the few people who read these groups who has had the
misfortune to have to do with s-algol. I even have a few manuals stashed away
somewhere, and still have a copy lurking on my mac.

I don't like the language, for a number of reasons which I won't bother to
go into here.

But your attack is wide of the mark. Languages should be used in teaching for
their pedagogic values, not for their application in industrial use. I happen
to think that Ada is well-suited to both purposes, but let us at least make
the distinction clear. If students can be taught good programming practise
with one tool, then picking up another language should be a snap. I don't even
remember how many computer languages I have written in - I lost count somewhere
in the 'teens.

cheers

andrew