Re: Hoare, Ada, and safety/complexity

[pattis@cs.washington.edu (Richard Pattis)]

Indeed, Tony Hoare wrote the foreword quoted (the complete foreword is about
twice as long).  Here is the context:  Hoare is a series editor for Prentice-
Hall International, and he writes a foreword for most books in the series,
including the one written by Watt, Wichmann, and Findlay.

In my reading of the foreword, it shows a masterful double meaning in every
sentence.  It looks as if Hoare is praising Ada, but he is really praising
(1) the ideas behind Ada and (2) learning about Ada (without praising using
Ada). Every sentence has a wonderful spin on it.  I advise everyone to read
this foreword skeptically; you'll surely smile a bit.

The authors are much more positive in their praise of language (I vastly
prefer teaching it, compared to Pacsal or Modula-2 in my CS-1/CS-2 classes).
But I don't think Hoare's preface can in any way be construed as being
positive towards Ada, nor as anything contrary to his Turing lecture.

Rich Pattis