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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,17e99293e94a7e6f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-01-01 00:54:32 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed.freenet.de!eusc.inter.net!news.eusc.inter.net!boavista.snafu.de!news From: Michael Erdmann Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Another ammunition Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 10:05:11 +0100 Organization: http://www.snafu.de/~boavista Message-ID: <7jnae-1qc.ln1@boavista.snafu.de> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Trace: news.eusc.inter.net 1041411272 3682 213.73.70.8 (1 Jan 2003 08:54:32 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@eusc.inter.net User-Agent: KNode/0.7.1 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:32429 Date: 2003-01-01T10:05:11+01:00 List-Id: Jean-Pierre Rosen wrote: > I know I'm preaching to the choir, but here is another story Ada fans can > tell to the other guys who say that "language doesn't matter"... > For me this is a good example, that language does not matter since you can achieve everything in any language by spending unlimited ammount of effort in the implementation phase. > My son was recently doing an assignment in C, which involved lots of > floating point computations, and he kept getting inconsistent results. > After lots of searching, he discovered that NaNs were generated in various > places. There seemed to be no consistency in the appearing of NaNs: > changing optimization options, adding intermediate variables in > computations, etc. all changed the way NaNs were produced. > This is the reason why i am using still Fortran for heavy caculcation. I think that this is not a pure technical problem, because i know a lot researchers which are using C for there calculations. The problem seems to me the teacher, which should know, that a lanaguage is simply a tool to achieve the implementation of your requierements. The usage of these tools has to be questioned during design since every tool is has a limited application domain. My personal experience was that teachers are forced by curiculum to teach on basis of a single language, which i think is simply wrong. The teacher should be asked why he has asked to do the job in C. A happy new year Michael.