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: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 10db24,13ac8a03cecf8f1e,start X-Google-Attributes: gid10db24,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: jsa@alexandria (Jon S Anthony) Subject: Re: What's the best language to learn? [any language except Ada] Date: 1996/08/24 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 176130692 sender: news@organon.com (news) references: <4u7hi6$s2b@nntp.seflin.lib.fl.us> <4uo74j$95p@ns.broadvision.com> organization: Organon Motives, Inc. newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer Date: 1996-08-24T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <01bb9102$1865afa0$506700cf@ljelmore.montana> "Larry J. Elmore" writes: > I really began to appreciate Ada. There's a few details I disagree with > (like why couldn't they have specified square brackets ( '[', ']' ) for > arrays (like Pascal) instead of parens? It makes it easier for me to > distinguish between array references and function/procedure calls...), This seems to be one of those "religious" things. The reason why it was done is that from one perspective an array is just a function. You give it an input, it returns an output. There's no reason why it should look different from a function call. Formally speaking, I think you can make a very good case for this, but it is also true that arrays in Ada don't really adhere to this. You can create array types, you can slice and dice them, you can assign them or parts of them, etc. A related reason is one of maintenance. You can shift from a simple array "function" to a more complex computation based on the same input without having to change any of the code referencing the instances. This again is more useful and convincing in the case where you have, say, an anonymous array and not a bunch of instances of an array type. Basically, I'm swayed more by the second reason and the fact that I like parens more than the (subjective view here) "clunky" looking square brackets. Shrug... > it still feels verbose, I actually prefer Ada 95 to C or C++ now and can > really understand why some people argue that Ada's the only real language > choice for many very large projects. > > But for small programs and utilities, I still greatly favor Forth... > > Larry J. Elmore > ljelmore@montana.campus.mci.net /Jon -- Jon Anthony Organon Motives, Inc. 1 Williston Road, Suite 4 Belmont, MA 02178 617.484.3383 jsa@organon.com