From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FROM_WORDY, INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,fd3a5ba6349a6060 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Nick Roberts" Subject: Re: should I be interested in ada? Date: 1999/02/19 Message-ID: <7aikfp$nhq$3@plug.news.pipex.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 445932163 References: <7a72e6$g55$1@probity.mcc.ac.uk> <36C93BB4.1429@ecs.soton.ac.uk> <7afc1o$3mi$2@plug.news.pipex.net> <7afttr$7v3$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7aganu$qsc$1@plug.news.pipex.net> <36CC11A1.C7A71642@hercii.mar.lmco.com> <7ahkn0$kab$1@plug.news.pipex.net> <36CC6AC0.25DBE56D@erols.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Organization: UUNET WorldCom server (post doesn't reflect views of UUNET WorldCom) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-02-19T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: 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 -------------------------------------