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From: kassover@control.crd.ge.com (David Kassover)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Reasons for keeping Ada
Message-ID: <5417@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Date: 20 Feb 90 23:03:22 GMT
References: <19409@grebyn.com> <6175@ae.sei.cmu.edu>
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Organization: Aule-Tek, Inc.
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

I was hoping not to get involved in a flame war, but:
 
C and Unix have growed like topsy.  That's the difficulty, they
are an open system, and just about anybody can contribute.
 
Then there are things like Mainframe Operating systems, which
were designed to make the applications run fast, not the design
of applications feel good.
 
Then there are things like VMS, which is not totally open, but
not totally closed.  Digital *tells you* the Digital way, and
encourages you to use it, so that everybody does it the same way
without leaving anyone out in the cold.
 
I'm a professional, and the thing that is most important to me is
that my product work, and continue to work.  I don't care if it
is bigger than I can handle myself  (I prefer projects to get
that big, I make more money that way 8-) )
 
It may not matter to you whether a trivial typo causes one of
your programs to splatter barfums on your screen, Mr. Holden, but
when one of my systems does so to one of my customers and I lose
a multi-kilodollar sale or a mega-dollar account because of it, I
hurt.
 
Ada may not be perfect, but it and it's philosophy go a long way
toward eliminating expensive mistakes.  Twenty thousand miles
above the surface of Venus is one HELL of a time to find out
someone used a decimal point instead of a comma.
 
Just in case no one knows the reference, the following code
fragment was responsible for the failure of a control algorithm
in a (not too) recent Venus probe:
 
		DO 100 I = 1.100
			.
			.
			.
	100	CONTINUE

This compiled, and the loop merrily executed only once.

So, Mr. Holden, please exercise some restraint, and direct your
diatribes to someplace else, like alt.flame, and allow us
professionals to go about our business, unhindered.
 
E(nd) O(f) S(ermon)