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From: Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: How do I write directly to a memory address?
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 06:34:39 -0800 (PST)
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Date: 2011-03-02T06:34:39-08:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Hyman Rosen wrote:
> On 3/1/2011 7:41 PM, Randy Brukardt wrote:
>> If "the environment" had a strongly typed Ada interface,
>> then the error could not occur there.
>
> Isn't it the case that Ada proponents argue that Ada is a good
> (and possibly the best) programming language in general, and not
> just when interfacing to a strongly typed Ada interface? I sense
> an attitude of "If it's good, thank Ada. If it's bad, it's the
> fault of something else."

I think everyone is correct here.

I maintain that Ada is the best language that I know; this does not
make all Ada programs or bindings perfect, and in fact could induce
programmers into complacency.  Trying to blame this  GNATColl bug on
SQL or on C is dishonest, IMHO.  A bug is a bug and we, perfectionist
Ada programmers, should know better than trying to find excuses.

OTOH, it is also true that interfacing Ada with a weakly-typed
language such as SQL and C is just as error-prone as programming in
SQL or C in the first place.  That's where perfectionist Ada
programmers should show the attention to detail they've learned with
the strongly-typed language, but without help from the compiler.

--
Ludovic Brenta.