Re: How to make Ada popular. Get rid of ";" at end of statement.

[John Perry <john.perry@usm.edu>]

On Tuesday, July 23, 2019 at 4:58:12 PM UTC-5, Ingo M. wrote:
> Am Freitag, 19. Juli 2019 23:42:00 UTC+2 schrieb Nasser M. Abbasi:
> > "Part of the reason for Python’s popularity is that it
> > gets rid of the annoying conventions of other languages, such as
> > using semicolons to indicate the end of a statement.
> 
> Python is popular because it is the "Basic" of our time. Basic was popular in the 70s because it was easy to handle for beginners who wanted to learn programming. Javascript (the "Basic" for the Web) is more complex for beginners since it requires basic knowledge how to deal with a web server. So Python is a good language for education.

In support of this assertion, I submit that the main reasons for Python's popularity are:

1) Variable types don't have to be declared.

2) Code doesn't have to compile.

3) The code is written for situations where there are no bad consequences if the system crashes.

[Java requires types and compilation. I don't know about #3, but I remember that it used to come with a warning that you shouldn't use it in critical places like, say, trains, planes, and nuclear plants. (IIRC the warning on "nuclear plants" was explicit.)]

4) You don't care that much about speed.

5) You don't need any parallelism that isn't built-in, or isn't available through a module programmed in another language. (See: Global Interpreter Lock.)

I know many programmers who use this model: start with Python; if it's too slow, try compiling with Cython; if it's still too slow, assign types to certain variables; if it's still too slow, analyze the algorithm; if it's still too slow, think about implementing it in C or C++.

> So I'd like to make a suggestion: Remove ";" from Ada.

Won't make a dent in Ada's popularity.

The bandwagon effect is a really big deal: almost everyone who has heard of Ada, has heard that DoD commissioned it, and that most people dislike it. That's about it. Ask for a concrete example why they dislike it, and you'll probably get, "It's complicated."

Anyone who's actually used Ada these days might reply, "Complicated? Compared to what, C++?"

The one concrete reason I've ever heard for using C or C++ instead of Modula-2 or Ada is that C/C++ allow you to perform pointer arithmetic, which one person I spoke to thought was essential for his work. I don't know enough about Ada to know how to address his situation, but even if it did allow it, I don't think it would matter.

I had a conversation with a computer science professor the other day about security in automobiles, where a lot of people are using C or C++. At the end I asked why they don't use Ada, and if I could distill the answer, it was that Ada is perceived as passé, sort of like working as a comedian without relying on profanity: good luck with that career. Sure, you *can* do it, but almost no one does, because... well, "it's complicated."

john perry