Re: C is 'better' than Ada because...

[cosc19z5@Bayou.UH.EDU (Spasmo)]

Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com) wrote:
: system@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote in article
: <4tijip$rlo@corn.cso.niu.edu>...
: > Why are you so prejudiced against Ada?  You know next to nothing about it
: > But reading your original post you have essentially already decided what 
: > Ada is.

: [bringing out the fire extinguisher]
: I'm not; my questions/statements were in response to the points raised
: by the original author.  I know nothing about Ada; it's advocates seem
: to feel that is a very good language, however.  I'm curious why it
: hasn't caught on, when it has had so much time to gain a larger
: following that it has.  

Hello Tim, fancy seeing you here :).  Well I felt compelled to
jump in on this thread to respond to your point.  Firstly you
posted what you claimed were your credentials in the Quake newsgruop
and so it really surprises me that you would take the attitude
that greater popularity necessarily implies superiority.  I mean
the world is full of examples of things which are more popular
than others, but not necessarily better.  I know you like M$ so
I won't bring that up, but a wonderful point another person
brought up was MacDonald's (which I refer to as McDeath Burger).
Another good point would be to compare the number of Ford
Escorts on the road to Lamborghinis.  There are many more
Ford Escorts than Lamborghinis, but would you care to argue
that they are more numerous because they are superior?  I
hope you see the point.

I for one do think that not only is Ada a wonderful language,
but in many ways it surpassess C/C++, and this is coming from
a person who originally approached Ada with a condescending
attitude!  

When I first looked at Ada, I did coding in C/C++ and loved
them both (I still do).  I saw a superficial similarity
to Pascal, scoffed and walked away.  I kept this attitude
for a long time until one day I had nothing better to do
so for reading materials I read an ancient Ada83 book.
This sparked my interest so I researched the matter
futher, and do you know what?  I think the language is
beautiful, and far more intelligently designed than
C/C++.  I mean you've got power, wonderful support for
modular programming (far superior to C/C++), ease of
use, readability (something C/C++ have almost none of),
and safety!

In any case this long ramble was meant to illustrate that
I am one example of a person who was converted to Ada95
because I genuinely believed it to be a better choice than
C/C++.


However to put it in terms that a C/C++ programmer could
instantly identify with:

	popularity != superiority

Add about 3 levels of indirection and a few infix and
postfix incrementations and you're all set :)


: -- Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com)

--
Spasmo
"Everyone has secrets, but sometimes you get caught,
 So if it's just between us, my silence can be bought"
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