Re: Ada vs. C++

[Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com>]

In article <38A37C97.9E181025@interact.net.au>,
  G <gmw@interact.net.au> wrote:
>   Has anyone done any measurements on the different speeds and
> memory requirements of comparable applications written in C++
> and Ada95.  I am learning both languages.

No. Compiled procedural languages generally do not have a "speed"
associated with them that can be compared to the speed of other
such languages. How fast your Ada or C++ code runs depends almost
entirely on your design and the quality of your compilers (eg: how well
they optimize). There really isn't anything  pervasive in either
language that can be said to cause every algorithm in one to be slower
than the equivalent in the other. Theoreticly it may be easier for
compilers to optimize Ada than C++ due to Ada's more restrained approach
to pointers and aliasing. But that issue would only have bearing if
every compiler vendor spent the exact same amount of effort trying to
optimize, which they don't.

If you had 2 specific compilers you wanted to compare, that question
would be meaningful. Also, if you were to ask about maintainablity or
readability, you would have a general issue that could be discussed.
This is also a much more meaningful question in these days of desktop
supercomputers.

--
T.E.D.

http://www.telepath.com/~dennison/Ted/TED.html


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