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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,21960280f1d61e84 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news2.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net.POSTED!e511c328!not-for-mail From: Charles D Hixson User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.9) Gecko/20061219 Iceape/1.0.7 (Debian-1.0.7-2) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How come Ada isn't more popular? References: <1169531612.200010.153120@38g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:01:11 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.245.56.19 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net 1169935271 66.245.56.19 (Sat, 27 Jan 2007 14:01:11 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 14:01:11 PST Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:8635 Date: 2007-01-27T22:01:11+00:00 List-Id: Markus E Leypold wrote: > Charles D Hixson writes: > >> goes on. I, personally, think that one factor IS the lack of a >> standard garbage collector. Related to this is the awkwardness of >> dealing with strings of varying lengths. > > Actually that is rather good compared to C or C++. The different > string package s make it possible to often use stack allocated storage > only or get the comfort of unbounded strings. After a while I really > started to like this. > Note that "After a while"? The first hour, the first day, the first week, and the first month are the most important for forming lasting impressions. I still remember the extreme frustration I experienced the first time I tried to print a string...it was an unbounded string, and I hadn't used Ada.Text_IO.Unbounded...and I didn't have anyone I could ask "What does that silly error message MEAN!?!?" It's easier to do simple things in Fortran, C, Pascal, Modula II, PL/I or even Snobol. Oh, yes, and BASIC, too. (The other current contenders weren't around then, I never learned Cobol, and it isn't easier in any assembler I ever learned.) >... >> only Ada and Algol were frightening as well as lust provoking. > > :-) Nice account. > > Regards -- Markus > Thanks