Re: Gurus - which lang. for this task?

[smize@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM (Samuel Mize)]

In article <3g0rc9$o4j@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM>,
Cameron Laird <claird@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> wrote:
>... except for its suitability for prototyping.  Ada
>has had a bad reputation in that regard.  Does it
>still suffer from multi-day link operations?  Under-
>stand, please, that I'm a "friendly", looking for
>reasons to learn more about Ada.

1) Modern compilers work pretty fast.  If you're working
on a slow platform, they will still take a while; so, if
you expect to do code development on an 8086-based
platform, one could use a near-assembler-language like C,
then blame Ada for compiling slower.

2) FOR THIS ANSWER I'll define "prototyping" as rapidly
building something, as a proof of concept or design
sketch.  I've found, once one knows Ada, that it works
extremely well for this.

You get the same trade-offs in building prototypes as you
do building anything: it takes more time to write the code
initially, it takes more compile time, you get more
compile-time checks and spend less time debugging.

The trick is to set up a code skeleton first, and compile
it.  Add a little functionality, compile it.  Use a fast
code/compile/test cycle.

If you use enumeration types carefully, you can use 'image,
'value, and the text_io packages to crank out a quick-n-dirty
command-line interface that will adapt itself as you add
to the types.  This can become an engine that is driven by
a GUI in your second-generation prototype (UI + functionality).

If you want to rapidly hack something that kind-of works, to
show a UI or a general idea, you might do better in a non-Ada
language.  In this case I would recommend a UI builder of
some sort, and whatever language it hooks to.

Once Ada93 is well in place, that language may well be Ada.

Samuel Mize - smize@starbase.neosoft.com