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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1014db,dab7d920e4340f12 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,dab7d920e4340f12 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Alan Brain Subject: Re: C is 'better' than Ada because... Date: 1996/07/25 Message-ID: <4t7ed4$bq61@red.interact.net.au>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 170074851 references: <31daad10.57288085@netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov> <31ebfbd7.330061022@netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov> <31EE19D1.6977@lfwc.lockheed.com> <31efe069.63062188@netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov> <4sopkp$dao@itfhps00.itf.hcsd.ca> <31f3c396.238311543@netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov> <01bb78b1$28455ec0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: At Home mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c x-mailer: Mozilla 1.2N (Windows; I; 16bit) Date: 1996-07-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: "Tim Behrendsen" wrote: > >I am totally ignorant of Ada, except for a book I flipped through a >long time ago. I use C, because it has the most infrastructure along >with it, including programming talent. I'm in business to make money, >not to push back the frontiers of computer science (the pioneers take >the arrows). > >My personal preference is for small nuts-and-bolts languages, anyway. >Ada always seemed too "kitchen sink" for my tastes. > >My question is this, and I really don't mean this snidely: If Ada is so >good, why are the only companies that use it are the ones that deal with >the government, which make them use it? Ada has had plenty of time to >develop the infrastructure that C has developed, so it can't be a "I >don't want to be first" mentality on the part of industry. We seem to have gone full circle. As the originator of the thread, I published a slightly-tongue-in-cheek "C is 'better' than Ada because..." article - which has since been consigned to the bit bucket - showing how it was strictly for non-technical but very psychologically significant reasons. Like you can write the most apalling guff in C, and the compiler will happily swallow it, never tattle-taling about your errors, whereas an Ada compiler will often snidely inform you what an idiot you are for adding apples to oranges (unless both are subtypes of base type fruit) and so on. I think the original article is worth re-publishing (Anybody out there have it??), because this question is a darned good one IMHO.