Re: ****************** Ada vs C++ Help ********************

[bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff)]

In article <508a18$1af@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
John M. Miano <miano@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>1. Code size and execution speed are a function of the compiler and not the 
>language.

Partly true.  However, it's not very useful to someone choosing a
language, to tell them "it is theoretically possible to implement
so-and-so language efficiently".  Existing implementations are all that
matter, and anything else is vaporware.

Furthermore, language design decisions can have a strong effect on
whether it is feasible, or even possible, to generate efficient code.
For example, a dispatching function call can be done in Ada or C++ by
calling indirect through a table of pointers to functions.  It is
*possible* to do the same in Smalltalk in many (perhaps most) cases, but
it's not *feasible*, since it requires global analysis of the whole
program at link time, which is takes too long for large programs.  So
most implementations of Smalltalk use a rather slow method lookup
mechanism.  I think it's fair to blame that on the language, and not on
the implementations.

- Bob