Re: Britannica on Ada

[Frode Tenneboe <ft@alne.edh.ericsson.se>]

David Botton <David@botton.com> wrote:
: Just got my Britannica DVD 2000 and look what comes up:

: "Ada is similar to Pascal but contains many additional features that are
: convenient for the development of large-scale programs. Because of its
: abundant features, however, ordinary users may feel awkward using Ada. Thus,
: Ada has not been widely used in programs other than those for the Department
: of Defense."

This seems to be a very common misconception in encyclopediaes - look what
the Jargon Lexicon has to say about Ada 
(http://sagan.earthspace.net/jargon/jargon_16.html#TAG8):

"Ada /n./ 

A Pascal-descended language that has been 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 (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. "

Clearly - something has to be done. Has anyone got a nice, accurate resume
which we can send to ill-informed editors?

: I certainly find Ada easier then Java, C or C++ particularly when it comes
: time to read some one else's code ;-)

Or ones own code. :-)

 -Frode
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