From: Rakesh Malhotra <rakesh.malhotra@safetran.com>
Subject: Re: Fortran or Ada?
Date: 1998/09/22
Date: 1998-09-22T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <6u8t40$8uf$1@news-2.news.gte.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: m3n27sqhms.fsf@visar.physast.uga.edu
Jeff Templon wrote:
> Hi,
> one other word on Ada ... it is a very complex language. Take a look
> at Cohen's "Ada as a Second Language" book and compare it Metcalf
[snip]
Hi Jeff,
Yes, you are correct in saying that if someone needs to know the _full_
language then Ada is larger/more complex than, say, C is. However, as
has been said many times before what kind of complexity are you talking
about:
- complex to read
- complex to write compilers for
- complex to program in
- complex to learn etc
Note: C is supposed to be simple but then it has these "complex"
operator precedence rules which can bite you.
Presumably you are refering to complex to learn, complex to write/read
in. Here I would have to disagree. I learnt Ada about 8 years ago
through a 5 day class. At this time I did not have much sw development
experience (I knew some Pascal and C). Ada was very easy to learn.
Ofcourse, since I was doing a safety critical system we were not taught
the full language; just an appropriate, necessary subset. Over the
years I have used this subset very successfully on many commercial
projects and have taught myself other features of Ada as and when I
needed them.
I am sure that the above is what most people do when they start working
in other languages also. I doubt that anyone first learns the full
language and then does useful work. e.g. presently I am doing work that
needs use of C and C++; I certainly do not know all of C++.
The good thing about Ada is that it has a number of very useful, well
designed features that all hang together well because they have been
designed to do so. If you do not need a feature you can avoid using
them without severely impacting other features that you do want to use.
e.g if you do not want to use tasking you never need to know about it.
Similarly if you do not need to use generics you can get by with very
little knowledge of it. If you do not do much floating point (which I
doubt since this is posted to c.l.fortran :) ) then you do not need to
know about the special stuff Ada has to support fixed/floating types.
Similar things can be said about other syntactic constructs.
So, yes, Ada is big (I would call Ada big rather than complex) if you
need to learn all of it at one go but if you don't then it is not that
difficult.
--
Rakesh
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-09-22 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 96+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <36068E73.F0398C54@meca.polymtl.ca>
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Fortran or Ada? Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Rakesh Malhotra [this message]
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1998-09-22 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Craig Burley
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Jonathan Guthrie
1998-09-26 0:00 ` Craig Burley
1998-09-26 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-26 0:00 ` Craig Burley
1998-09-26 0:00 ` Robert B. Love
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Joel Seidman
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Marc A. Criley
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-09-30 0:00 ` Daniel Barker
1998-09-30 0:00 ` Lawrence Kirby
1998-10-01 0:00 ` Aaron Crane
1998-10-02 0:00 ` Fortran or Ada or gobbledygook? Wes Groleau
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Fortran or Ada? Terry Devine
1998-09-24 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-24 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-26 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-28 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-29 0:00 ` William B. Clodius
1998-09-30 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-30 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-30 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-30 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-09-30 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Toon Moene
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Toon Moene
1998-10-04 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Michel OLAGNON
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-10-05 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-10-06 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-06 0:00 ` James Giles
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Mark A Biggar
1998-10-06 0:00 ` James Giles
1998-10-07 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-07 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-10-08 0:00 ` Gary L. Scott
1998-10-08 0:00 ` Offtopic Airport Diversion (Was: Fortran or Ada?) Harold Stevens ** PLEASE SEE SIG **
1998-10-08 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Fortran or Ada? Toon Moene
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Jonathan Guthrie
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1998-10-05 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Michel OLAGNON
1998-10-07 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Gautier.DeMontmollin
1998-10-02 0:00 ` Geoff Bull
1998-10-02 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-02 0:00 ` jbs
1998-10-02 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-10-03 0:00 ` jbs
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Larry Elmore
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Pat Rogers
[not found] ` <6udre0$ha1$1@nnrp1.dejane <6utg60$h6l$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
1998-10-01 0:00 ` robin_v
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Frank Ecke
1998-09-23 0:00 ` bglbv
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1998-09-23 0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-24 0:00 ` John McCabe
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Samuel T. Harris
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-09-23 0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96
1998-09-24 0:00 Walt Brainerd
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-05 0:00 robin
1998-10-05 0:00 Condic, Marin D.
1998-10-05 0:00 Robert I. Eachus
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