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=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE, MSGID_SHORT autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Xref: utzoo comp.lang.ada:2105 comp.software-eng:1210 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!purdue!rjh From: rjh@cs.purdue.EDU (Bob Hathaway) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: "Forced to Use Ada" Message-ID: <6153@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> Date: 2 Mar 89 20:04:34 GMT References: <6125@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <4624@hubcap.UUCP> Sender: news@cs.purdue.EDU Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University List-Id: In article <4624@hubcap.UUCP>, ofut@hubcap.UUCP (A. Jeff Offutt) writes: > From article <6125@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, by rjh@cs.purdue.EDU (Bob Hathaway): > > ... I'm glad to see someone (the government) advocating modern > > programming languages along with software engineering; the more support > > the better. > > C'mon, be careful what you say. As a scientist/engineer, I do not want > anybody *mandating* the use of technology without clear *technical* proof > that that is in every case the best solution. > > Whether you are an Ada fan, a Modula-II fan, a C fan or even open-minded, > it is very clear that the scientific community is not convinced that > Ada (or any language) is the best technology for all applications. Or > for any application. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > -- > Jeff Offutt Its not the language which is important its the facilities it provides. Does any of the above languages provide all of the necessary and desirable constructs to provide well designed software and a method for validating correct compilers? What other language provides concurrency, dynamic exception handling, generics, reasonable encapsulation constructs, Adts, complete control structures, variable number of parameters with defaults, etc; there are some languages which don't even provide the basics for well designed software such as a reasonable type system or dynamic memory management (ie. ForTran) or strong typechecking and choice of parameter modes (C), etc. Ada was designed to standardize software and it could replace almost any language with exceptions being rare. For scientific software, Ada provides Adts to model vectors, matrices, and other mathematical objects and operators can be overloaded to provide high quality code. Ada's methodolgy is an excellent base for well designed software; as a scientist/engineer what doesn't Ada provide for you? Even if other reasonably complete languages could be standardized and validated I wouldn't want to learn X number of languages to read other programmers code, the fewer languages the better. While research languages will continue to explore new ideas, it will be several years before another language replaces Ada. I can't think of any application Ada is poorly suited to with its emphasis on well engineered software, can you justify your underlined claim above? Bob Hathaway rjh@purdue.edu