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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e7f5eed426d6145 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-09-19 07:38:58 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-out.nuthinbutnews.com!propagator2-sterling!news-in-sterling.newsfeed.com!news-in.nuthinbutnews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamfinder.gnilink.net!nwrddc02.gnilink.net.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Frank J. Lhota" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <3d88d8bf$1@giga.realtime.net> <1032380280.239075@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <3d89d3a4$1@giga.realtime.net> Subject: Re: C++ to Ada translator? X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Message-ID: <5kli9.14641$t%6.6716@nwrddc02.gnilink.net> Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 14:38:57 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.157.178.79 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: nwrddc02.gnilink.net 1032446337 141.157.178.79 (Thu, 19 Sep 2002 10:38:57 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 10:38:57 EDT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:29176 Date: 2002-09-19T14:38:57+00:00 List-Id: As one who has both developed and used automatic translation tools, let me state from my experience that the output from automatic translation is always pretty awful. Yes, the translates often compiles and links with few hitches. Quite often, you can get the translated program to perform like the original program. But the translated source code is an unmaintainable mess that never takes advantage of the best features of the destination language, and must jump through hoops in order to maintain the best features of its source language. All of the previous problems get worse as the level of the target language gets higher. At the C++ / Ada 95 level, I would expect the translated code to be atrocious. The only reason for doing automatic translation is get a new version of the program in a hurry. For any program that is to be maintained, the right approach is to do a re-design of the program for the target language.