From: "Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96" <condicma@PWFL.COM>
Subject: Re: Fortran or Ada?
Date: 1998/09/23
Date: 1998-09-23T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <98092311025801@psavax.pwfl.com> (raw)
Jeff Templon <templon@VISAR.PHYSAST.UGA.EDU> writes:
>one other word on Ada ... it is a very complex language. Take a look
>at Cohen's "Ada as a Second Language" book and compare it Metcalf
>and Reid's F95 book! Cohen is not spending time on elementary concepts
>either.
>
>So Ada loses in this respect : there is a lot of language to know.
>This makes it more difficult to write programs, unless one invests
>the time to learn the language well. This amount of time would
>be less for Fortran.
>
I regularly teach a beginning course in Ada for our engineers and
it takes about two 4 hour sessions. I get them up to speed with
the basic data type concepts, flow-of-control mechanisms,
subprograms and packages. I talk only minimally about tasks,
generics and other complex features, just so they know these
features exist. By the end of the class, my students are able to
write most of the sorts of functions they used to do in Fortran or
C.
I'll give you that there are *lots* of features to Ada. I'll even
concede that some of the features are complex and difficult to
understand or use correctly. But my experience is that it is not
hard for engineers to learn to use the language effectively,
provided they don't approach it with a bad attitude. (I've had
students who took my class for the express purpose of arguing with
me about why language XYZ was cool and why did they have to learn
Ada when everyone knows that it sucks :-)
I have not used Fortran in so many years that it would be unfair
for me to make any statements about Fortran as it is today. But my
recollection was that Fortran had its own dark corners of
obscurity as well. Mostly, I used the easy to understand subset of
it unless there was some reason to get more complex. I think that
is the way most of us use any language - including English :-)
MDC
Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer Voice: 561.796.8997
Pratt & Whitney GESP, M/S 731-95, P.O.B. 109600 Fax: 561.796.4669
West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600 Internet: CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
=============================================================================
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
-- G.B. Shaw
=============================================================================
next reply other threads:[~1998-09-23 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 93+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-09-23 0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96 [this message]
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-10-05 0:00 Fortran or Ada? Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-05 0:00 Condic, Marin D.
1998-10-05 0:00 robin
1998-09-24 0:00 Walt Brainerd
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-23 0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-24 0:00 ` John McCabe
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Samuel T. Harris
[not found] <36068E73.F0398C54@meca.polymtl.ca>
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1998-09-22 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Joel Seidman
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Craig Burley
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Jonathan Guthrie
1998-09-26 0:00 ` Craig Burley
1998-09-26 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-26 0:00 ` Craig Burley
1998-09-26 0:00 ` Robert B. Love
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Marc A. Criley
1998-09-24 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-24 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-26 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-28 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Gautier.DeMontmollin
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-29 0:00 ` William B. Clodius
1998-09-30 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-30 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-09-30 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-30 0:00 ` jbs
1998-09-30 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Toon Moene
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Toon Moene
1998-10-04 0:00 ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Michel OLAGNON
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1998-10-05 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-05 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-10-06 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-10-08 0:00 ` Gary L. Scott
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Toon Moene
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Jonathan Guthrie
1998-10-06 0:00 ` James Giles
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Mark A Biggar
1998-10-06 0:00 ` James Giles
1998-10-07 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-07 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Michel OLAGNON
1998-10-07 0:00 ` Ian St. John
1998-09-29 0:00 ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-10-02 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-02 0:00 ` jbs
1998-10-02 0:00 ` William Clodius
1998-10-03 0:00 ` jbs
1998-10-03 0:00 ` Larry Elmore
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-06 0:00 ` Pat Rogers
1998-10-02 0:00 ` Geoff Bull
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-25 0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-09-30 0:00 ` Daniel Barker
1998-09-30 0:00 ` Lawrence Kirby
1998-10-01 0:00 ` Aaron Crane
1998-10-05 0:00 ` Terry Devine
[not found] ` <6udre0$ha1$1@nnrp1.dejane <6utg60$h6l$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
1998-10-01 0:00 ` robin_v
1998-09-22 0:00 ` Rakesh Malhotra
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Frank Ecke
1998-09-23 0:00 ` bglbv
1998-09-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-24 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
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