Ada a fourth generation language?

Ada a fourth generation language?

[John]

I will follow a course in ada this summer and I heard that it was a fourth
generation language. Is it true and if so, what does it mean exactely?

Thank you.

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[Nick Roberts]

On Sun, 28 Apr 2002 10:06:02 -0700, "John" <celineg@look.ca> strongly
typed:

>I will follow a course in ada this summer and I heard that it was a fourth
>generation language. Is it true and if so, what does it mean exactely?

The ISO standard language Ada 95 is surely a 'third generation' language
(3GL), although I don't think it's possible for there to be any really
precise definition of these things. My own understanding is as follows.

A 3GL is a conventional procedural (imperative) high-level programming
language, that follows the basic von Neumann architecture (in terms of
having a 'thread' of execution flow, and associated control of that flow).

A 4GL is generally the programming language associated with an application
program development environment. Typical elements of such an environment
include database functionality, user-interface design tools, and (in
particular) automated code generation tools. The 4GL is typically designed
to accommodate automated code generation, and attuned to the needs of
commercial application programs (especially with a view to portability).

A 5GL is generally a declarative programming language, that has no explicit
notions of flow of execution or control of flow, but is 'goal oriented' and
in a way controls its own flow of execution. These languages used to be
associated with Artificial Intelligence, but AI has since moved on (leaving
them behind). Nevertheless 5GLs have asserted themselves in various areas
of application, and continue to evolve.

I can only assume that a 2GL is, in essence, an assembly language, and a
1GL is the bare machine code, but I've never seen any explicit reference to
this in any of the literature.

It is a fact that the earliest electronic programmable computers were
programmed by arranging pegs in holes in certain circuit boards.
(Programming all 10MB of Internet Explorer would presumably have taken a
long time. :-)

-- 
Nick Roberts

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <3ccc2ba7.138192556@news.cis.dfn.de>, nickroberts@ukf.net (Nick Roberts) writes:

> It is a fact that the earliest electronic programmable computers were
> programmed by arranging pegs in holes in certain circuit boards.
> (Programming all 10MB of Internet Explorer would presumably have taken a
> long time. :-)

When I read that comment out loud to my wife, she commented that the
mechanism of arranging pegs into holes on circuit boards whod have
provided sufficient time that the creators could have thought the
better of it and produced a program that consumed considerably less
than 10 MB.

Perhaps it would be sufficient to require all programmers to carry
their card deck back and forth to work :-)

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[Robert Dewar]

nickroberts@ukf.net (Nick Roberts) wrote in message news:<3ccc2ba7.138192556@news.cis.dfn.de>...

4gl and 5gl languages are not well defined terms, but Nick's definitions
are definitely, shall we say, idiosyncratic. I would recommend reading
what Jim Martin has to say, after all he coined the term :-)

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[Robert I. Eachus]

Nick Roberts wrote:


> It is a fact that the earliest electronic programmable computers were
> programmed by arranging pegs in holes in certain circuit boards.
> (Programming all 10MB of Internet Explorer would presumably have taken a
> long time. :-)


I'm curious about which computers you had in mind.  The ENIAC used 
rotary switches for programming, but theoretically patch panels for 
arithmetic constants.  (A patch panel is a board with lots of holes, and 
you insert wires with plugs on them. Individual patch panels can then be 
stored and swapped.)  The reason I say theoretically is that ENIAC had 
enough electronic registers that it was more efficient to copy any 
constants into registers which could be accessed much more quickly.

The IBM 403 Accounting Machine, and later models used plugboards.  See 
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/407.html for photographs of an IBM 
407 and someone programming a plugboard.  IBM later introduced a 
"programming language" RPG, which almost directly mapped to the 
plugboards but was used on real computers like the IBM System/3.

There were early computers that used pegboards not wire plugboards for 
programming.  The only one I remember was the Burroughs E101.

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[James Baker]

Nope it's a bog standard third gen language. Like basic and C.

Which means no fancy schmancy object orientated malarky. Good old fashioned
coding. for example.

with TEXT_IO,BASIC_NUM_IO;
use  TEXT_IO,BASIC_NUM_IO;

procedure TRI2 is

-- variables

   NUMBER,NUMBER1,NUMBER2:integer;
   CHAR,CHAR1,CHAR2:character;
   SIZE:positive_count;

   procedure DATA_INPUT is

      begin
         put("Type in the size 1: ");
         get(NUMBER1);
         new_line;
         put("Type in the character 1: ");
         get(CHAR1);
         new_line;
         put("Type in the size 2: ");
         get(NUMBER2);
         new_line;
         put("Type in the character 2: ");
         get(CHAR2);

      end;

etc etc etc.

So if you want 4th gen go to college in russia :P
"John" <celineg@look.ca> wrote in message
news:uco0dme2v1gic9@corp.supernews.com...
> I will follow a course in ada this summer and I heard that it was a fourth
> generation language. Is it true and if so, what does it mean exactely?
>
> Thank you.
>
>

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[Marin David Condic]

"James Baker" <James.Baker7@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:aahk8e$qdc$1@knossos.btinternet.com...
>
> Which means no fancy schmancy object orientated malarky. Good old
fashioned
> coding. for example.
>
Why is it you think that Ada is not object oriented? Last I checked, you
could use it to do encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphisim, etc., etc.
etc. just like any other object oriented language.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[James Baker]

It can do object orientated. But it's not by definition object orientated.

Plus the "fancy schmancy object orientated malarky" was a reference to VB :P

"Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> wrote in
message news:aajjco$4iu$1@nh.pace.co.uk...
> "James Baker" <James.Baker7@btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:aahk8e$qdc$1@knossos.btinternet.com...
> >
> > Which means no fancy schmancy object orientated malarky. Good old
> fashioned
> > coding. for example.
> >
> Why is it you think that Ada is not object oriented? Last I checked, you
> could use it to do encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphisim, etc., etc.
> etc. just like any other object oriented language.
>
> MDC
> --
> Marin David Condic
> Senior Software Engineer
> Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
> Enabling the digital revolution
> e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
>
>

Re: Ada a fourth generation language?

[Steve Doiel]

"James Baker" <James.Baker7@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:aaonau$p82$1@knossos.btinternet.com...
> It can do object orientated. But it's not by definition object orientated.
>

Would you describe C++ as object oriented?  Both Ada and C++ provide OOP
capabilities, but neither require their use.

SteveD