Prototyping with Ada (was: Ada featured in Doctor Dobb's Journal)

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Dr. Adrian Wrigley writes
> I think Ada is great for prototyping too.
>
> Often, the code is in great flux when prototyping, and the Ada features
> really work in your favor by ensuring consistency and catching the
> mistakes early.
>
> For very prototyping simple projects, scripting languages are fast,
> but errors and inconsistencies creep in quickly.  The code tends not
> to last as long because of inflexibility (poor/missing structuring tools
> such as packages and generics in scripting).

I agree.  I would even go so far as to say there is no such thing as
software prototyping.  A prototype is something complex you make
before mass-producing some sort of physical good, because it is very
difficult to change the physical system after you've made it, should
you find any problems.  By definition, you know you're going to throw
the prototype away at some point.

The opposite is true for software.  If you build a prototype, you can
always fix problems in it.  And once there are no more problems, the
prototpye is the "real" software, and you don't throw anything away.
Which means the "prototype" you thought you made was not a prototype
after all; just an early and evolving version of the "real" software.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.