Re: is Ada dying?

[john.mccabe@emrad.com.nospam (John McCabe)]

On 15 Oct 2001 03:24:09 -0700, Robert*@ <Robert_member@newsguy.com>
wrote:


>>Of course it is - Pascal was designed as a teaching language, Java
>>wasn't designed.

>did you mean to cut off the sentense above as is,

Yes

> i.e. did you mean to say that java was not designed, period, or that
> it was not designed to be a teaching language?

The former.

>I think that software is becomming a more component based, where 
>most programmers know how to use those pieces of software as a black
>box,

Admittedly that is something that is lacking in Pascal, i.e. the
concept of encapsulation which is more commonly associated with
separate compilation. Modula-2 may be a better example.

>and so many do not learn the more basic things in programming, 
>like data structures and records (in Java, programmers do not even 
>know what a record is :). These things are not learned well. Java 
>programmers do not even know too well about enumeration and parameters 
>passing mehanism, but know how to create an object or extend one and 
>use an interface.

Enumeration types are an almost mandatory feature of any language that
can claim to be safe but, even then, it depends on the implementation.
Ada's definition of Enumeration types, and their use as array and loop
bounds is excellent - the C++ version is vaguely useful, but not all
that good relying too much on history. The fact that Java does not
even have Enumeration types is, to me, a serious defect.

>speaking of records. in true OO, the concept of a record does not exist
>really. All what you have is an object, which contains attributes (state
>information). So, I can sort of understand when a java programmer ask me
>what is a record? 

I can understand that and, often, a record can be replaced by a Class
with no behavioural aspects (i.e. no methods). The problem is that the
overhead (possibly just in syntax) of a class can be a nuisance and
confuse the issue and, certainly in Java, there is no way to define
the representation of elements in a Class (unlike Ada with its very
powerful representation clauses). To me this shows a great difference
in the target audience of the languages, and their history.