From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1993 12:20:21 -0400 From: dlw@pcdave.ottawa.jade.com (Dave Williamson) Subject: Re: Hoare's gripes about Ada Message-ID: List-Id: I can't make any comments on Tony Hoare's speech in 1980, nor on any retractions he may have made since. However, I can recall the substance of a talk he gave to my graduating computer science class in early 1983 when asked about his "feelings towards Ada". His response to Ada itself was guarded and non-specific. He indicated that he felt that programming languages should become smaller and more application specific. He felt that large programming lanaguages were a thing of the past, and that no language could be all things to all people. He basically advocated use of the right language for the right task. I don't recall him heaping praise on any language nor expressing disdain for any others. I don't even recall that he mentioned any other languages in his response (though he may have). If Hoare still holds these opinions (and everyone is free to change one at any time given an increase in knowledge and awareness), then I can hardly see him being an advocate of any languages that are currently in wide commercial use. Ted Holden has been playing the 1980 Hoare speech to death on this newsgroup for at least 3 years now along with his Ada woes from the initial 9X bulletin board. Identical messages seem to appear every few months as he tunes back in. I'm convinced someone's got a directory of Ada gripe files on disk that just get sent over and over again - a DoD virus program perhaps? :-) My, but creativity is a wonderful thing... Dave Williamson Jade Simulations Ottawa, Ontario, Canada dlw@ottawa.jade.com