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=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,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 From: nasser@apldbio.com Subject: Re: C is 'better' than Ada because... Date: 1996/08/16 Message-ID: <4v3dev$jo7@lex.zippo.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 174903822 references: <31f3c52e.238719470 <4uj42h$j06@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net> <4ukl9r$gcj@news.inetdirect.net> <4ul434$jf@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net> <4ulpn9$ka6@news.inetdirect.net> <4um08t$klq@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net> organization: Perkin-Elmer, Applied BioSystems newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-08-16T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <4um08t$klq@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>, Craig says... > >dlmiller@inetdirect.net (Doug & Rose Miller) wrote: >>....The OS isn't executing source code. It's >>executing object code, and you can't tell what the source language was, >>by looking at the object code. >> >How could it? The fact that all the API functions want NULL terminated >strings is a clue. So when you want to pass a string from a Pascal >program, you can't pass it a string with the length embeded in the first >element of the string/array. The fact that you need a new keyword in BASIC >because it expects things to be passed by value. I know it's all just 1's and >0's when its object code, but to interface with the OS you must call >API functions, and it's there where you must deal with the language that >the OS is written in. Subroutine linkage is language specific. So yes, >you at least need to know what that should be. Fortran, BASIC and Pascal >have similar linkage. C does not. Offcourse on a real solid OS like VMS (the best OS of them all), the interface to system services, system libraries, and the rest, is an API that is not specific to one programming language, it is language idependent API, and this is how an API should be. An OS API that is designed to make it easier to be used by one langauge and not the other is not a good API. You might want to have a look at some of the VMS system services calls to see for yourself. Nasser -- Nasser Abbasi. C/C++/Ada Solaris. Perkin Elmer - Applied BioSystem division. email: nasser@apldbio.com MSEE, MSCS, MSCE, Fide chess master (FM). "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977 "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication." Western Union internal memo, 1876. "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895. "Everything that can be invented has been invented." Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.