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: 103376,62f1e030ed61b97b X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-06-12 09:26:56 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: newbie inquiry References: From: Jean-Marc Bourguet Date: 12 Jun 2002 18:26:43 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii NNTP-Posting-Host: cdssoph29.cadence.com Message-ID: <3d07764f$1@news.cadence.com> X-Trace: news.cadence.com 1023899215 cdssoph29.cadence.com (12 Jun 2002 09:26:55 -0800) Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.airnews.net!cabal11.airnews.net!uunet!ash.uu.net!news.cadence.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:25805 Date: 2002-06-12T18:26:43+02:00 List-Id: "Steven Shaw" writes: > Recently, I've been reading about Modula-3. I got exciting about it but > recently found out that it's pretty much dead. Ada, on the other hand, has > been around awhile and recently because part of the "standard" GCC distro. > I'm hoping that Ada can be my m3. I'm quite new to Ada. I've read the > lovelace tutorial and found some other useful material (but I haven't read > it all yet). There's alot of info out there... If there are any comparisons > with m3 that would be useful for me. > > Features I kinda know Ada has (but might be wrong) > * modules > * fixed string and dynamically growing strings (excellent) > * generics > > Features I'm hoping Ada has: > * gc No. Controlled types can help. Good design reduce also the need. > * multiple interface inheritence (like Java, m3 doesn't have it) No. AFAIK, there is an extension proposed for normalisation. Gnat has also an extension, I don't know if they are the same. > * fast language interoperability with C (ffi and data sharing) Yes > * ability to put data/objects into shared-memory for sharing between > processes You can define memory pool for this. > * speed of C? If you use C level structure. > * libraries for database access, sockets/protocols, xml see http://adapower.com/, http://libre.act-europe.fr/ and recent posts. > > I read somewhere that Ada doesn't have GC. I think I heard that gnat > supports gc. False for most meaning of "support". > How does this work out for you? Does this mean you have to use > free() when using the standard library? No. (In fact that would be Unchecked_Deallocation). > Would Ada be as good a choice as C for writing an OS? a dbms? People here would argue that's a better choice for a pure technical point of view. > The Ada spec is very big. Is it all implemented in gnats? In Gnat yes. (Gnats is another thing). > Are there features in the spec that could/should be avoided? There are things that can be misused, but I know of non that are to be avoided at all cost. A+ -- Jean-Marc