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From: pitre@n5160d.nrl.navy.mil (Richard Pitre)
Subject: Re: Ada policy enforcement
Date: 1996/03/28
Message-ID: <4je6vp$lpg@ra.nrl.navy.mil>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 144671818
references: <dewar.827528183@schonberg>
organization: Naval Research Laboratory
newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-03-28T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <dewar.827528183@schonberg> dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
> > If Ada were *manifestly* better then there would be no need to enforce it.
> > Enforcment is the last refuge of the terminaly confused and soon to be
> > extinct. (Contract specification is a different matter, and yes you
> > can spank me for the unattributed misquote.)
> 
> Sorta' like seatbelts?
> 
> Or could one say "If having everyone drive on the same side of the raod
> is manifestly better then having people drive on which ever side they
> please, then there would be no need to enforce the rule about driving
> on the right!"
> 

Yes. I like that.
Ada will never be *manifestly* better to everyone, but with enough 
of the right kind of education the situation can improve a lot.
The key is sensitizing programmers to differences that have an objective 
impact while they are still in learning mode. Once you 
are into production you don't have time to experiment with differences.

If someone grows up drinking Ripple their first taste of really good wine
isn't something they write home about. They might even wash away
the bad taste with the *real* thing.


richard