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=-1.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, PP_MIME_FAKE_ASCII_TEXT autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-30 05:05:13 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.gamma.ru!Gamma.RU!aaanet.ru!not-for-mail From: "Gary Lisyansky" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 16:01:14 +0400 Organization: AAA Intersvyaz Message-ID: <9k3ia9$2cg4$1@pa.aaanet.ru> References: <9k36ae$138k$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B654276.4040707@bigfoot.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.59.110.211 X-Trace: pa.aaanet.ru 996494473 78340 213.59.110.211 (30 Jul 2001 12:01:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.aaanet.ru NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 Jul 2001 12:01:13 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6700 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10724 Date: 2001-07-30T12:01:13+00:00 List-Id: "Gerhard H�ring" wrote in message news:3B654276.4040707@bigfoot.de... > > Python does it both. The code is easy to read and easy to write. And it > is good for quick scripting tasks, too. The core of the answer is "for quick scripting tasks". One can write a well- readable code in Python, but most code is not of this quality, especially because of absence of parameter type information. > > > >>Here are the syntax changes I propose: > >> > >>1. Eliminate the "end" keyword and make the indentation structure an > >>inherent part of the syntax, as in Python. > > > I don't see how changing the syntax can make a language more popular. If > you want to lure more people into Ada, you'd have to change the syntax > to something C-like (yuck!). Agreed partially. Delphi and VB both have Algol- style syntax, and they are popular. In fact, they are much more popular than C++ Builder that follows BCPL syntax convention. > > > > This makes whitespace the part of the language syntax. In practice, it's not > > convenient, and adds *extremely nasty* tab/space problems. In common, it's a > > bug generator. > > > In many people's experience, it _is_ convenient. My policy is that tabs > are evil and should never be used except where they absolutely cannot be > avoided (Makefiles). The unusual fact that whitespace has meaning is > only annoying beginning Python programmers who use shitty editors. Given the source file is a text file, it must be quite easily readable and editable in a conventional ASCII text editor. Any "non- shitty" editor is not a part of language definition. A more serious (far more) thing is that absence of end statement makes it very easy to introduce a very bad kind of bugs (unintended inclusion or exclusion of a statement) that are so characteristic for C++ and Java programs and are often difficult to track. In common, it's a convenience at a price of reliability. Even though in Java or C++ it's allowed not to use {} if a statement like if() or for() contains only one executable statement, it's frequently considered a bad practice. IMHO, it's not an co-incidence that we don't know too many practically used non- free- form languages. > > > -- Gerhard > Gary