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Date: 9 Dec 92 22:25:33 GMT
From: agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!uknet!yorkohm!minster!mjl-b@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: Ada vs. C/C++...
Message-ID: <723939932.26972@minster.york.ac.uk>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <1992Dec8.094613.13886@u.washington.edu> bketcham@carson.u.washingto
n.edu (Benjamin Ketcham) writes:
>If Ada is so great, and (as I have seen asserted, without factual
>support) has solved a number of important problems that C++ is still
>struggling with, then why do I *never* see any mention of this from any
>of you folks on comp.lang.c++ or comp.lang.c?

Because the point of groups like comp.lang.c, comp.lang.c++ and
comp.lang.ada is not to bicker over which language or language culture is
"best". They're groups for people who have a common interest in the given
langauge.

>Are C/C++ people just too
>bourgeouis for you Ada enthusiasts to bother talking down to?

This sort of comment just winds people up and does little to help
rational argument.

[more deleted]

>If it's so much better, why won't you defend it in the open field?  Sure,
>you'd get some irrational flames, but if your points were so logically
>sensible, I think that most of the thoughtful and open-minded people on
>C/C++ would have to concede that you had a point, if indeed you did.

The trouble is that the two sides have less common ground than you imagine,
and also because people, intrinsically, don't agree with one another. At
this point it all boils down to what you believe is right... and you're in a
flame war.

An example of this is that I like the way Ada's semantics are very well
defined (there are holes, of course, but generally it's pretty good). An
acquaintance doesn't like Ada because he think's it's overspecified.

This leads most people onto the "who is right?" tack, but that's the wrong
question -- there isn't really a "right" and "wrong" -- we like or dislike
the fine semantic detail for different reasons.

The best thing you can do, if you want to answer your question, is to decide
what is important to you, look at the two languages and make the decision
for yourself. It is your choice of what is important that will have most
bearing on the outcome.

>--ben

Mat

| Mathew Lodge                      | "I don't care how many times they go    |
| mjl-b@minster.york.ac.uk          |  up-tiddly-up-up. They're still gits."  |
| Langwith College, Uni of York, UK |  -- Blackadder Goes Forth               |