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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,5f529c91be2ac930 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,583275b6950bf4e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 11232c,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid11232c,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-07 06:04:07 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: softeng3456@netscape.net (soft-eng) Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.ada,misc.misc Subject: Re: Using Ada for device drivers? (Was: the Ada mandate, and why it collapsed and died) Date: 7 May 2003 06:04:07 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <9fa75d42.0305070504.6866e7a3@posting.google.com> References: <9fa75d42.0304230424.10612b1a@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305010621.55e99deb@posting.google.com> <254c16a.0305011035.13133e8d@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305011727.5eae0222@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305020516.bdba239@posting.google.com> <82347202.0305021418.4719da45@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305060521.400f1d80@posting.google.com> <82347202.0305061103.2ddd98e4@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 32.97.239.34 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1052312647 8346 127.0.0.1 (7 May 2003 13:04:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 7 May 2003 13:04:07 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.java.advocacy:63247 comp.object:62894 comp.lang.ada:37025 misc.misc:13990 Date: 2003-05-07T13:04:07+00:00 List-Id: jimmaureenrogers@worldnet.att.net (Jim Rogers) wrote in message news:<82347202.0305061103.2ddd98e4@posting.google.com>... > C was built to satisfy the requirements of Bell Laboratories. Ah, I see. You have no experience with actual research environments! That's not work it works. Bell Labs did not come up with something like "now this set of research engineers will design a language, as per this set of requirements". Research labs can't get very many useful results that way. Ken Thompson in fact started working on developing a Fortran compiler for his project's needs, but didn't like it and instead ended up creating a language called "B", based upon something called "BCPL". People at Bell Labs liked "B", and started using it. It picked up direction and momentum, and with some work from Dennis Ritchie, ended up as as "NB" (new "B") and then "C". Even "C" didn't start off in any kind of stable form. There were many early changes and revisions. In fact, that may have been the major underlying strength of C -- it was designed by people who were also using it. They *had* to make it usable. (As opposed to Ichbiah, who *had* to make it impressive to a committee.) In fact, the languages B and C were so evolution driven that they did not have a chicken-and-egg problem of compilers-and-language variety. From the early stages, the languages had compilers written in themselves! If you are doing something complex enough like writing a compiler in a language you are designing, you will of course end up making the language usable. So all future users of "C" found it usable, rather than impressive. And when you have to get actual projects done in a short time, theoretical considerations weigh little in the end, actual usability looms large. Giving people a set of requirements and saying "now go design a perfect language" is the opposite of how such things evolve naturally. Here is a link from the author of "C" on how "C" evolved: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/chist.html