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From: bs@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: C++ as a way to use private types in C
Message-ID: <6733@alice.uUCp>
Date: Thu, 19-Mar-87 11:40:46 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.6733
Posted: Thu Mar 19 11:40:46 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Mar-87 07:11:20 EST
References: <870318190934.056@Jpl-VLSI.ARPA>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Summary: C++?
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>



> C++ is very similar to Ada, except ...

Please don't get the idea that C++ is a corporate planner's idea of
an Ada workalike. C++ has in various forms been in use for over 7 years.
It is essentially C with stronger type checking and Simula-like classes.
C++ also offers function and operator overloading (including overloading
of assignment, subscripting, and application). It does not provide generic
types directly. It provides C low-level efficiency and flexibility.

It differs from Ada not just in being a C superset, but also in its approach
to abstraction. The most fundamental difference is probably that C++ relies
on a class concept with inheritance rather than a package concept.

Concurrency issues were deliberately avoided in C++ because I felt that
for systems applications it was more important for the programmer to be
able to exploit the concurrency model of particular hardware and/or operating
systems directly than to get the convenience of a standard language supported
model of concurrency (that might be at odds with what the hardware provides).

C++ is in use on AT&T 3Bs, DEC VAXes, DG machines, HP 9000s, Amdahls, 80286
based machines (i.e. IBM-ATs and clones), 68K based machines (Suns, Apollos,
etc.), and sevaral other architectures.

> Has anyone on the list done a detailed comparison between C++ and Ada?

Not that I know of. It would be interesting to see one - especially one that
was not too detailed.