Britannica on Ada

Britannica on Ada

[David Botton]

Just got my Britannica DVD 2000 and look what comes up:

"Ada is similar to Pascal but contains many additional features that are
convenient for the development of large-scale programs. Because of its
abundant features, however, ordinary users may feel awkward using Ada. Thus,
Ada has not been widely used in programs other than those for the Department
of Defense."

I certainly find Ada easier then Java, C or C++ particularly when it comes
time to read some one else's code ;-)

David Botton

Re: Britannica on Ada

[Geoff Bull]

David Botton wrote:
> 
> Just got my Britannica DVD 2000 and look what comes up:
> 
> ... ordinary users may feel awkward using Ada. ...
> 
> I certainly find Ada easier then Java, C or C++ particularly when it comes
> time to read some one else's code ;-)

Yes David, but you are not exactly ordinary! :-)

Perhaps you could send them a better entry for the 2001 edition?

Cheers
Geoff

Re: Britannica on Ada

[Frode Tenneboe]

David Botton <David@botton.com> wrote:
: Just got my Britannica DVD 2000 and look what comes up:

: "Ada is similar to Pascal but contains many additional features that are
: convenient for the development of large-scale programs. Because of its
: abundant features, however, ordinary users may feel awkward using Ada. Thus,
: Ada has not been widely used in programs other than those for the Department
: of Defense."

This seems to be a very common misconception in encyclopediaes - look what
the Jargon Lexicon has to say about Ada 
(http://sagan.earthspace.net/jargon/jargon_16.html#TAG8):

"Ada /n./ 

A Pascal-descended language that has been made mandatory for Department
 of Defense software projects by the Pentagon. Hackers are nearly
unanimous in observing that, technically, it is precisely what one might 
expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat; designed by committee, 
crockish, difficult to use, and overall a disastrous, multi-billion-dollar
boondoggle (one common description is "The PL/I of the 1980s"). Hackers
find Ada's exception-handling and inter-process communication features
particularly hilarious. Ada Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who 
became the world's first programmer while cooperating with Charles 
Babbage on the design of his mechanical computing engines in the
mid-1800s) would almost certainly blanch at the use to which her name 
has latterly been put; the kindest thing that has been said about it is 
that there is probably a good small language screaming to get out from 
inside its vast, elephantine bulk. "

Clearly - something has to be done. Has anyone got a nice, accurate resume
which we can send to ill-informed editors?

: I certainly find Ada easier then Java, C or C++ particularly when it comes
: time to read some one else's code ;-)

Or ones own code. :-)

 -Frode
-- 
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| Ericsson Radar AS. N-1788 Halden |                                |
| Phone: +47 69 21 41 47           | Frode@IRC                      |
| with Standard.Disclaimer; use Standard.Disclaimer;                |

Re: Britannica on Ada

[Robert Dewar]

In article <951897836.859085@edh3>,
  Frode Tenneboe <ft@alne.edh.ericsson.se> wrote:
> Hackers
> find Ada's exception-handling and inter-process communication
features
> particularly hilarious.

I guess the even more "hilarious" exception handling in C++
and Java must really give the hackers a good laugh :-)


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Re: Britannica on Ada

[jehamby]

In article <89j5un$j49$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
  Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> wrote:

> I guess the even more "hilarious" exception handling in C++
> and Java must really give the hackers a good laugh :-)

I think there's a double standard at work here.  Who knows, perhaps
whoever wrote the original Ada entry *would* have had a good laugh at
the expense of C++ and Java.  "Real hackers use C", right?

From my limited experiences at DEFCON and other places where
self-proclaimed (as opposed to widely-acknowledged) hackers congregate,
it's obvious to me that rule #1 is to love what everyone else loves and
knock whatever everyone else is knocking.  So if everyone loves Linux,
you gotta love Linux.  If everyone's using C, you gotta use C.  If your
clique of friends likes C++, then you can use C++, but if your clique
hates C++, then you have to badmouth it.  "Java's slow", "Ada sucks",
"Windows blows", "VMS bites" (note that the first criticism is relative,
and the other three are meaningless.. that's on purpose, because that's
what I hear most often!).

What happened to judging languages on their own merits?  If you don't
like Ada, or C++, or Windows, then you're entitled to your opinions
(after all, *I* don't particularly like C++ or Windows!), but make sure
they're *your* opinions, and that they're not just nth-generation copies
of someone else's (possibly decades-old!) opinions.

-Jake


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Re: Britannica on Ada

[Ehud Lamm]

One of the nasty terms i like in the Jargon file is "wannabee"
"A woul-be hacker"

Someone merely repeating what others say is at best a wannabee. Or perhaps
a computer program, with poor chances of passing the Turing test.

Ehud Lamm mslamm@mscc.huji.ac.il
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/ehudlamm <== My home on the web 
Check it out and subscribe to the E-List- for interesting essays and more!

Re: Britannica on Ada

[Gautier]

One day I'll write a pair of programs using a common small
dictionnary with words such as "huge", "complex", "comitee" etc.

The first will read a text source to measure its "stupid gossip"
density (the Jargon file article about Ada will serve as scaling
reference); the second will automatically and randomly generate
these sorts of sentences - maybe in parallel, like the "dining
philosophers". A look to Dilbert web site with its random mission
statement generator can help too...

-- 
Gautier

_____\\________________\_______\_________
http://members.xoom.com/gdemont/gsoft.htm

Re: Britannica on Ada

[jehamby]

In article <AC0v4.7618$zv.1333461@news4.usenetserver.com>,
  "David Botton" <David@Botton.com> wrote:
> Just got my Britannica DVD 2000 and look what comes up:

BTW, whatis.com has a much more flattering definition of Ada (complete
with several different descriptions from different sources, including
the Hacker's Dictionary, along with the comment that many "hackers"
don't agree with that definition), here:

http://www.whatis.com/ada.htm

-Jake


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Re: Britannica on Ada

[Ted Dennison]

In article <8a1afv$e5c$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
  jehamby@lightside.com wrote:

> BTW, whatis.com has a much more flattering definition of Ada (complete
> with several different descriptions from different sources, including
> the Hacker's Dictionary, along with the comment that many "hackers"
> don't agree with that definition), here:

Interesting that the two vendors mentioned are two of the smaller ones.

--
T.E.D.

http://www.telepath.com/~dennison/Ted/TED.html


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Re: Britannica on Ada

[Tucker Taft]

Ted Dennison wrote:
> 
> In article <8a1afv$e5c$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
>   jehamby@lightside.com wrote:
> 
> > BTW, whatis.com has a much more flattering definition of Ada (complete
> > with several different descriptions from different sources, including
> > the Hacker's Dictionary, along with the comment that many "hackers"
> > don't agree with that definition), here:
> 
> Interesting that the two vendors mentioned are two of the smaller ones.

[Green Hills and OCSystems are the two mentioned.]

Actually, Green Hills is one of the bigger Ada vendors.  In terms
of Ada 95 sales, I suspect they are second only to Rational.  Of course,
it is a little hard to compare "sales" figures when comparing with GNAT ;-).

> 
> --
> T.E.D.
> 
> http://www.telepath.com/~dennison/Ted/TED.html
> 
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.

-- 
-Tucker Taft   stt@averstar.com   http://www.averstar.com/~stt/
Technical Director, Distributed IT Solutions  (www.averstar.com/tools)
AverStar (formerly Intermetrics, Inc.)   Burlington, MA  USA