From: "Nick Roberts" <Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: should I be interested in ada?
Date: 1999/02/19
Date: 1999-02-19T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <7aikfp$nhq$3@plug.news.pipex.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 36CC6AC0.25DBE56D@erols.com
Dan Nagle wrote in message <36CC6AC0.25DBE56D@erols.com>...
[...]
|I don't know enough about the optimization rules of Ada to know
|where Ada stands on this issue, nor do I know how much Ada can
|gain from its pragmas. But raw floating point speed is Fortran's
|long suit.
|
|Also, Fortran's intrinsic library has (usually hand) optimized
|matrix multiply, dot product, locate maximum element, locate
|minimum element, etc.
'Raw floating point speed' is largely to do with the target architecture.
Those speed-critical operations which are not hard-wired or micro-coded are
carefully implemented in assembly. I don't believe there are any differences
in the opportunities for optimisation between Ada and Fortran (e.g. Ada
supports global variables, it just doesn't force them on you).
Thus, the high-level language is, theoretically, completely immaterial. Of
course, in practice, you may well find Fortran compilers which have better
written libraries and/or better optimisation. And, of course, for
multi-processor targets, there are the (many!) parallelising Fortran
compilers.
|I know Fortran fairly well, I'm learning Ada and like it so far.
|Right now, if I had to fly, I'd like the airplane to be designed
|in Fortran, with the fly-by-wire done in Ada. Just trying to use
|the right tool for the right job.
Fortran is very much a general-purpose language now. But my curiosity is
piqued: for which part of flying an aeroplane would you consider Fortran to
be the 'right tool for the job'?
|Please feel free to enlighten me about Ada's optimization capabilities.
This is an issue which happens to be close to my heart. I would like someone
to point out to me an optimisation that can be done in Fortran (or any other
general purpose imperative language) which cannot be done in Ada. There may
be such optimisations - I have an open mind - but I have never come across
any yet.
Again, I note that there's always a difference between theory and reality.
What _can_ be done is not always what _is_ done.
-------------------------------------
Nick Roberts
-------------------------------------
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-02-19 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 89+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-02-14 0:00 should I be interested in ada? Phillip Helbig
1999-02-15 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-02-23 0:00 ` David Starner
1999-02-15 0:00 ` Gautier
1999-02-16 0:00 ` Ken Thomas
1999-02-17 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-18 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-18 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-18 0:00 ` Jerry Petrey
1999-02-18 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-18 0:00 ` Dan Nagle
1999-02-18 0:00 ` nabbasi
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts [this message]
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Dan Nagle
1999-02-19 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Dan Nagle
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-23 0:00 ` Peter Hermann
1999-02-19 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-19 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-20 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-21 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-21 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-22 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-19 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-21 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1999-02-18 0:00 ` Joel Seidman
1999-02-18 0:00 ` fraser
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-20 0:00 ` fraser
1999-02-18 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-18 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-19 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-20 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-22 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-22 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-23 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-23 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-22 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-23 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-23 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-25 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-25 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1999-02-24 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-24 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-26 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1999-02-27 0:00 ` Semantic info pragmas (was: should I be interested in ada?) Nick Roberts
1999-03-01 0:00 ` Samuel Tardieu
1999-03-01 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1999-02-24 0:00 ` should I be interested in ada? William Clodius
1999-02-25 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-25 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-26 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-18 0:00 ` nabbasi
1999-02-18 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-18 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-19 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-19 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-20 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-22 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-22 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1999-02-24 0:00 ` White rabbit (was: should I be interested in ada?) dennison
1999-02-25 0:00 ` Alice books " JP Thornley
1999-02-25 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1999-02-20 0:00 ` should I be interested in ada? robert_dewar
1999-02-20 0:00 ` Steve Doiel
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Phillip Helbig
1999-02-19 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-20 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-22 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-19 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-19 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-18 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-18 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-18 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-18 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-20 0:00 ` Hartmut H. Schaefer
1999-02-20 0:00 ` bill
1999-02-21 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-21 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-22 0:00 ` dennison
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