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From: "Pat Rogers" <progers@NOclasswideSPAM.com>
Subject: Re: Time to join the fold?
Date: 1999/01/25
Message-ID: <78i9td$am7$1@remarQ.com>#1/1
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Organization: Software Arts & Sciences
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1999-01-25T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Mike Silva wrote in message <78i8s4$hth$1@its.hooked.net>...
>I want to thank everybody who has responded to my questions, both
here and
>in private.  Your comments have been quite interesting and helpful.
I spent
>the weekend perusing "Ada95 for C and C++ Programmers" and
"Concurrency in
>Ada" (others are also on the way) and my head is naturally swimming.
FWIW
>here are some of my very early impressions:
>
>- Ada is wordy.  Luckily I'm a touch typist <g>.  However, I
recognize that
>I sometimes get myself into trouble in C because it *is* so easy to
write a
>quick function, and then another, and then...  Presumably the Ada
>requirement (as I perceive it) to "spell it all out" helps encourage
"think
>twice, write once" programming.

Ada plays to the economic reality: programs are read (many) more times
than they are written.  Hence, the syntax supports the reader more
than the writer.  You'll play both parts, and appreciate it when in
the former role.

<snip>

>Now for another question.  Some people have mentioned getting into
the Ada
>"mind-set".  What are the main components of this mind-set?  What,
IOW,
>should I pay special attention to in order to avoid simply writing "C
in
>Ada" (whatever that might mean).  Thanks again for the help.


IMHO, the essence of Ada is support for Abstract Data Types.
Understand Ada's direct support for ADTs and you will have the bulk of
the sequential part of the language (including OOP).  That is what
somebody else (IIRC it was Tucker) meant when they answered that you
would get up to speed quickly if you already used your .h files to
hide implementation details in C.  ADT support encompasses packages,
private types, exceptions, subprograms... and really, the tasking
types too.  Get that and you will be a good Ada programmer.


---
Pat Rogers                          Training & Development in:
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