Re: Ada as a first language

[Gautier <gautier@fakeaddress.nil>]

Brian wrote:

> Since hobbyist, beginner code tends to be small (Less than 1K SLOC/project, and usually much 
> smaller), then other languages might tend to give him more success with less 
> pain.

I would put the line rather around 100 lines. And even so... I often do 
less than 100 lines hobby programs without too much pain in Ada. I just 
made this one with a buddy who was sure it would be more complicated in 
some script language (and would be a lot slower of course):

with Graph; use Graph;

procedure Fractal is

   subtype Real is Float;

   type Pt is record
     x,y:  Real;
   end record;

   subtype Vector is Pt;

   type Figure is array(Positive range <>) of Pt;

   type Matrix22 is array(1..2,1..2) of Real;

   function "+"(p: Pt; v: Vector) return Pt is
   begin
     return (p.x+v.x, p.y+v.y);
   end;

   function "*"(M: Matrix22; p: Pt) return Pt is
   begin
     return
       (M(1,1) * p.x + M(1,2) * p.y,
        M(2,1) * p.x + M(2,2) * p.y);
   end;

   type Affine is record
     M: Matrix22;
     v: Vector;
   end record;

   type Affine_array is array(Positive range <>) of Affine;

   function Morph(f: Figure; a: Affine) return Figure is
     mod_f: Figure(f'Range);
   begin
     for i in f'Range loop
       mod_f(i):= a.M*f(i) + a.v;
     end loop;
     return mod_f;
   end Morph;

   procedure Draw(f: Figure; a: Affine_array; level: Natural) is
   begin
     if level = 0 then
       Point( f(f'Last).x, f(f'Last).y );
       for i in f'Range loop
         LineTo( f(i).x, f(i).y );
       end loop;
     else
       for i in a'Range loop
         Draw( Morph(f,a(i)), a, level-1 );
       end loop;
     end if;
   end Draw;

   procedure Plot(f: Figure; a: Affine_array; d:device_type; n:string) is
   begin
     InitGraph(d, file_name=>n);
     Set_math_plane(0.0,0.0, 1.0,1.0, d);
     for level in 1..10 loop
       Draw( f, a, level);
       ClearDevice;
     end loop;
     CloseGraph(d);
   end Plot;

   procedure Plot_Sierp(d:device_type; n:string) is
     triangle: Figure:= ((0.0,0.0), (0.5, 0.886), (1.0,0.0));
     M: Matrix22:= ((0.5,0.0),(0.0,0.5));
     v1: Vector:= (0.0,0.0);
     v2: Vector:= (0.5,0.0);
     v3: Vector:= (0.25,0.886/2.0);
     transformations: Affine_array:=
       ( (M,v1), (M,v2), (M,v3) );
   begin
     Plot( triangle, transformations, d, n);
   end Plot_sierp;

begin
   Plot_sierp(PostScript, "sierpinski.ps");
end;
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