Re: Is Ada as good for graphics programming as C? (WAS: Re: Avoiding the second historic mistake)

[jsa@alexandria.organon.com (Jon S Anthony)]

In article <33A9338D.10BB@polaroid.com> Mukesh Prasad <prasadm@polaroid.com> writes:

> Jon S Anthony wrote:
> > > If I were to do heavy-duty graphics, compression, or image
> > > processing involving implementation of state-of-the-art algorithms,
> > > I would think very carefully before choosing Ada.
> > 
> > Why?
> 
> Well, I must admit that I haven't done anything
> in Ada since 1983, and even then it was small programs.

Well, that isn't even Ada anymore.  ISO Ada => Ada95 since Jan'95, as
implemented in Gnu Ada (GNAT), ObjectAda, etc.


> The impression I recall mostly was that it was
> highly typed (the word I reflexively thought of was
..
> things I would do in C/C++ in implemeting a graphics
> or compression algorithm would be cumbersome
> or difficult to do efficiently.

Nah.  You can actually adopt the same sloppy style if that is what you
want - right down to using the exact same "documentation" for C libs
like X/Motif/Win32/etc.


> you (or anybody else volunteering)
> could post a brief segment on how one
> would scan-convert a triangle and set up
> the bits on a CGA (without taking advantage
> of graphics libraries from vendors -- since

Why?  As I pointed out, it is simple to take advantage of such
graphics libs or any other for that matter.  I'm not a real UI type,
and have only written interfaces with Ada using X/Motif and Java AWT
(yes, you can directly write Java apps in Ada and use the various AWT
commercial packages out there).


> vendor libraries are in place.)  Let us say
> the platform is basic MSDOS (where C was

Other people have certainly done this.  There is even a free package
that comes with the DOS version of GNAT.  But, to be fair, I have
never really done any DOS programming.


Tell you what - since I'm not a real graphics whiz, it would be much
simpler if you were to post some code showing the so called "difficult
bits" so that it can be translated and shown to be about the same in
Ada.


/Jon
-- 
Jon Anthony
OMI, Belmont, MA 02178
617.484.3383
"Nightmares - Ha!  The way my life's been going lately,
 Who'd notice?"  -- Londo Mollari