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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,ea8ea502d35ca2ce X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-09 09:40:56 PST Path: newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!netnews.com!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net!newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Beginner's Language? From: charleshixson@earthling.net (Charles Hixson) References: <9cukad$nn68@news-dxb> <9d1ilh$g397v$1@ID-22205.news.dfncis.de> <9d22ji$g7jr5$1@ID-22205.news.dfncis.de> <3AF8184F.3D7ADD74@brighton.ac.uk> Organization: Mandala Fluteworks Message-ID: User-Agent: Xnews/M3 Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 16:40:56 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.94.156.19 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net 989426456 198.94.156.19 (Wed, 09 May 2001 09:40:56 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 09:40:56 PDT X-Received-Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 09:39:19 PDT (newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net) Xref: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:7384 Date: 2001-05-09T16:40:56+00:00 List-Id: John English wrote in <3AF8184F.3D7ADD74@brighton.ac.uk>: >I am well known as an Ada advocate, but... > >... > 2) Perl has associative arrays (hashes). I really wish Ada > did. > I don't want to have to reinvent the wheel, or use a > proprietary package to avoid doing so. And I use hashes > all the time. Hashes are common in several languages. Not only Perl, but also Python, Ruby, and Eiffel. And another thing these languages all have is garbage collection. There's probably a relationship. They also tend to be easier to handle strings in. And all of the preceeding but Eiffel have pattern matching via regular expressions built in. This seems to be a cluster of related features that work well together. But there maybe something difficult about getting regular expression pattern matching to work in a compiled language, as every language that I can think of that has it is dynamic (and interpreted) -- but I think it's been implemented in C, so I don't know why there should be a problem. Perhaps it's a historical accident. >... >-------------------------------------------------------------- >--- > John English | mailto:je@brighton.ac.uk > Senior Lecturer | > http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/je Dept. of Computing > | ** NON-PROFIT CD FOR CS STUDENTS ** University of Brighton > | -- see http://burks.bton.ac.uk >-------------------------------------------------------------- >--- > -- Charles Hixson Copy software legally, the GNU way! Use GNU software, and legally make and share copies of software. See http://www.gnu.org http://www.redhat.com http://www.linux-mandrake.com http://www.calderasystems.com/ http://www.linuxapps.com/