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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4b06f8f15f01a568 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus) Subject: Re: Is there a language that Dijkstra liked? (was: Re: Software landmines (loops)) Date: 1998/10/13 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 400724156 References: <6rf59b$2ud$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <6rfra4$rul$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <35DBDD24.D003404D@calfp.co.uk> <6sbuod$fra$1@hirame.wwa.com> <904556531.666222@miso.it.uq.edu.au> <6sgror$je8$3@news.indigo.ie> <6sh3qn$9p2$1@hirame.wwa.com> <6simjo$jnh$1@hirame.wwa.com> <35eeea9b.2174586@news.erols.com> <6sjj7n$3rr$1@hirame.wwa.com> <35f055a5.1431187@news.erols.com> <6sjnlu$83l$1@hirame.wwa.com> <6skfs7$2s6$1@hirame.wwa.com> <35F252DD.5187538@earthlink.net> <6t4dge$t8u$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <6t5mtp$4ho$1@news.indigo.ie> <35FFE58C.5727@ibm.net> <3600E72E.24C93C94@cl.cam.ac.uk> <6ts1q0$vo2$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <3620FA1A.AC761584@eiffel.com> Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA. Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel,comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.eiffel Date: 1998-10-13T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <3620FA1A.AC761584@eiffel.com> Bertrand Meyer writes: > I'd like to clear up the chronology and Hoare references. > So the chronology is: > 1973: Paper on "Hints on Programming Language Design" (revised 74). > 1975-1978 (approximate dates): Hoare consults on the "Yellow" language > proposal. > 1978 (I think): DoD chooses "Green" and "Red" languages as finalists. > 1978-1979 (or 1980): Hoare consults for the Green team (Jean Ichbiah). 1979: (Date corrected) DoD chooses Green as the winning language design for Ada. June 1979 Preliminary Ada Manual published (Ada 1979) early 1980 Ada Reference Manual Released. > 1980: Hoare's Turing lecture, "The Emperor's Old Clothes", includes > strongly critical comments on Ada. Dec. 1980 Ada approved as DoD-1815 (Ada 80). July 1982 Draft ANSI Ada Standard published (Ada 82). Major revisions from Ada 80. Jan. 1983 ANSI/Mil Std 1815A published (Ada 83) I could go on, but the point I am trying to make is that, at best, Hoare's Turing Award lecture referred to a non-final version of Ada 80. There were lots of things wrong with even the final version of Ada 80 that went away as people acutally tried to implement the blasted thing. In fact, that is how I got involved in Ada language lawyering. I was working on the front end of an Ada compiler at Honeywell, and Honeywell (and later Alsys) had the development contract for Ada. So I was often in a position to be the first implementor to scream that something was unimplementable. Robert Dewar was a Distinguished Reviewer and also working on AdaEd at NYU, Gary Dismukes then at Telesoft, Ron Brender at Digital, and Gerry Fisher were others who strongly took the side of the compiler implementor during the standardization process. This doesn't mean that we were anti-user, in fact the most vociferous complaint was often, "How can I explain that in an error message?" In closing I would like to quote from the forward of the Ada 83 RM: "Several persons had a constructive influence with their comments, criticisms and suggestions. They include P. Brinch Hansen, G. Goos, C.A.R. Hoare, Mark Rain, W.A. Wulf, and also..." Jean Ichbiah would not have listed Tony Hoare in that group unless he had made a substantial impact on the design of the language. -- Robert I. Eachus with Standard_Disclaimer; use Standard_Disclaimer; function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...