Re: Why ADA?

[cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!news-server.csri.toronto .edu!ccs-server.QueensU.CA!qucdn!holnessi@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Iain D. Holness]

    I first started programming in C a year and a half ago. I started in
  Ada back in December. My C coding practices have taken me the year and
  a half to build up to a level where I was sure that what I wrote would
  in fact be clean code (in other words, I didn't have to kludge it).

    Sure, C allows you to typecast and force things your way, but that
  can lead to disaster (I still have problems working with it under QNX,
  but that's a different OS matter). Ada is forcing me to be more exact
  with what I write than ever before.

    My advisor for a group project I am involved in has monitored my
  style over the past 3 years, and today finally said :
    "Well, maybe you finally learned something after all this time."

    I've actually been surprised by the fact that what I write actually
  seems to be doing the job. The reason: I am using SunAda and SparcWorks
  Adavision, and the rotter refuses to fully import my own code unless
  it passes all tests for duplicate code, conflicting definitions, etc.

    I consider Ada to be more strongly typed than Pascal, and quite
  frankly a helluva lot harder than C. BUT, on the flip side, it is
  causing an evolution in my programming style and those of my two
  partners, because we are more sensitive to what is proper and correct.

    Sorry for the lengthy bit, but I think that you should at least check
  out the language a bit before deciding that it's a lost cause.

    Iain D. Holness

    Soon to be graduate Computer Engineering Technologist,
               St. Lawrence College Saint-Laurent, Kingston, Ontario, Canada