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=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,dab7d920e4340f12 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,dab7d920e4340f12 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: cosc19z5@Bayou.UH.EDU (Spasmo) Subject: Re: C is 'better' than Ada because... Date: 1996/07/30 Message-ID: <4tk93t$o7a@Masala.CC.UH.EDU>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 171154783 organization: University of Houston followup-to: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c Date: 1996-07-30T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com) wrote: : system@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote in article : <4tijip$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" "Blackmail" by Sloppy Seconds