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=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,ee41f292779851e,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-01-18 08:27:42 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!wizard.pn.com!satisfied.elf.com!news.mathworks.com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!paladin.american.edu!auvm!EUROCONTROL.DE!wel Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Message-ID: <9501181627.AA19623@eurocontrol.de> Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 17:27:42 +0100 Sender: Ada programming language From: Bob Wells #402 Subject: Ada explanation? Date: 1995-01-18T17:27:42+01:00 List-Id: G'day, I was just browsing around the WWW when I came upon "The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing." I looked up Ada and found the following. Perhaps we can give a bit better explanation to the maintainer of the dictionary. The dictionary's URL is http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/ Bob W. ---------- Begin Include ---------- Ada A Pascal-descended language, designed by Jean Ichbiah's team at CII Honeywell in 1979, made mandatory for Department of Defense software projects by the Pentagon. Hackers are nearly unanimous in observing that, technically, it is precisely what one might expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat; designed by committee, crockish, difficult to use, and overall a disastrous, multi-billion-dollar boondoggle (one common description is "The PL/I of the 1980s"). Hackers find Ada's exception handling and inter-process communication features particularly hilarious. Ada Lovelace (1811-1852), the daughter of Lord Byron who became the world's first programmer while cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his mechanical computing engines in the mid-1800s, would almost certainly blanch at the use to which her name has latterly been put; the kindest thing that has been said about it is that there is probably a good small language screaming to get out from inside its vast, elephantine bulk. Ada is a large, complex block-structured language aimed primarily at embedded computer applications. It has facilities for real-time response, concurrency, hardware access and reliable run-time error handling. In support of large-scale software engineering, it emphasises strong typing, data abstraction and encapsulation. The type system uses name equivalence and includes both subtypes and derived types. Both fixed and floating-point numerical types are supported. Control flow is fully bracketed: if-then-elsif-end if, case-is-when-end case, loop-exit-end loop, goto. Subprogram parameters are in, out, or inout. Variables imported from other packages may be hidden or directly visible. Operators may be overloaded and so may enumeration literals. There are user-defined exceptions and exception handlers. An Ada program consists of a set of packages encapsulating data objects and their related operations. A package has a separately compilable body and interface. Ada permits generic packages and subroutines, possibly parametrised. Ada programming places a heavy emphasis on multitasking. Tasks are synchronised by the rendezvous, in which a task waits for one of its subroutines to be executed by another. The conditional entry makes it possible for a task to test whether an entry is ready. The selective wait waits for either of two entries or waits for a limited time. See also Ada/Ed, Toy/Ada. E-mail: adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu. FTP, FTP, FTP. An Ada grammar including a lex scanner and yacc parser is available. E-mail: compilers-server@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, masticol@dumas.rutgers.edu. Another yacc grammar and parser for Ada by Herman Fischer is here. An LR parser and pretty-printer for Ada from NASA is available from the Ada Software Repository. Michael Feldman referred to this package in comp.compilers, he also has a yacc grammar for ada. Adamakegen generates makefiles for Ada programs. ["Reference Manual for the Ada Programming Language", ANSI/MIL STD 1815A, US DoD (Jan 1983)]. Earlier draft versions appeared in July 1980 and July 1982. ISO 1987. (08 Nov 1994) Previous: AD - Next: Ada++ ---------- End Include ---------- Feedback - Dictionary