Re: Ada's Slide To Oblivion ...

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

"Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@home.com> wrote in message
news:3C598CAA.7040801@home.com...
>
>
> The assertion "That's unheard of in the Ada world, since the compilers
> are essentially perfect" was a bit much also. I've run into a few GNAT
> bugs that caused me to scratch my head for a while. Ada does not
> eliminate a programmer's logic errors, but it sure helps to eliminate
> a wider range of stupid erros.
>
>
Well, there's "perfect" and there's "***PERFECT***". :-)

Its possible to consider the compiler "perfect" in the sense that it
implements all of the language features with the semantics intended.
Remember, we're talking about *C* programmers! They're used to diversion
from the standard into completely implementation dependent systax and
semantics. From that seat, Ada has to look pretty "perfect" in comparison.

If we insist that "perfect" means there are no compiler bugs, then clearly
Ada cannot measure up - but nobody else can measure up to that standard
either. I just don't think that's what the author intended to suggest.

But, of course, if people see and believe the line "essentially perfect" it
might get them to start looking at Ada out of curiosity. I would just hope
that they aren't overly disappointed when they encounter some
non-portability or some feature that compiles to incorrect code. :-)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
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