Re: Limitations of Ada

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

Kazimir Majorinc (kmajor@jagor.srce.hr) wrote:
: Hello everybody!

: This are limitations of Ada:

: 1) Not 100 % OO, see Smalltalk

Why is this a limitation?  Not being 100% OO is not a limitation,
it's a design decision.  You can use OO in Ada or you can choose
not to, this to me is a superior choice to being forced to use
OO in a 100% OO language like Smalltalk.


: 2) Without distributed objects, see Modula-3

Not quite sure what you mean by this.  


: 3) Lack of MACROS, see C++

That's an advantage.  If you notice in C++ one of the first
things they tell you when you get to inlining functions is
"Now you don't have to use macros!".  Since macros are
textual substitution you can really mess things up in a
big way.  Arguments to function like macros aren't evaluated
which can lead to innaccurate results (this is a famous
problem of macros, therefore the ugly notation where
everything is fully parenthesized in an attempt to
combat this deficency), and since macros are just
pure textual substitution you can do some very strange
things with them that can send readability out the
window.  You can assemble functions to be called that
won't be seen until preprocessing time, you can have
really wacked out notation, etc...  C can keep its
macros, I couldn't care less about them.  I've
done fine without them in other languages and I
have no doubt I will continue to do well without
them in the future.


: 4) Small number of operators to overload, see  C++

This is a two pronged situation.  On the one hand you've
got a ton of C++ operators which are really useful for
saving typing and obfusicating code (something C and C++
are famous for), but in all reality they don't do anything
new.  ie: ++, --, +=, etc... are just shorthand and
can be accomplished by the standard operators +, and -.
I was about to get on a tangent about C++ and how the
way it treats operators plays havoc with generic functions
(requiring ugly hacks and kludges) but I won't :)


: 5) Lack of multiple inheritance, see C++

There are those who would say this is an advantage.  Even in C++
folks recommend that if you use multiple inheritance, you do so
very sparingly and if I'm not mistaken there was serious consideration
as to whether or not include this "feature" since many say it does
more harm than good.  


: 6) Big language, see BASIC

Even if it is, so what?  As long as a language is easy to use, 
powerful, and helps me produce better programs, I couldn't
care less about the size.


: But, I love her more than C++ although I did wrote only 'hello world'
: in Ada. 

I've done more, and while I'm still an Ada newbie, I can say that
this is one sweet language.  The more I look at Ada, the more I
look down on C and C++.



: ________________________________________________
: Author:         Kazimir Majorinc, 
: Education:      dipl. ing. mathematics           
: Address:        Vinagorska 7,                       
:                 10 000 Zagreb,                      
:                 Croatia.                           
: Work:           prof. math. & comp.sci.              
:                 XIII. Gimnazija, Zagreb, Croatia
: E-mail address: Kazimir.Majorinc@public.srce.hr
: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: One who know the secret of the seventh stair


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