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=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,4d4a46ae26845fef X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-03-18 18:15:57 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: sparky!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!linus!linus.mitre.org!linus!mbunix!emery From: emery@dr_no.mitre.org (David Emery) Subject: Re: Ada as a beginning language In-Reply-To: jcreem@Rapnet.Sanders.Lockheed.Com's message of Thu, 18 Mar 93 22:08:21 GMT Message-ID: Sender: news@linus.mitre.org (News Service) Nntp-Posting-Host: dr-no.mitre.org Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA. References: <1993Mar18.033431.12194@ariel.ec.usf.edu> <1993Mar18.220821.9750@Rapnet.Sanders.Lockheed.Com> Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 01:32:51 GMT Date: 1993-03-19T01:32:51+00:00 List-Id: In a discussion on this with a college professor, I asserted Ada's greatest strength is its well-defined error handling. As much stuff as possible is checked at compile-time. Stuff that isn't checked at compile-time (unless erroneous) is caught at run-time with predictable behavior (i.e. an exception). Contract this to C, FORTRAN and Pascal, and try to explain to a student what happens when s/he accidentally divides by zero... dave