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,LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-08-01 02:11:21 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: mancel@techno.sk (Milan Mancel) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language Date: 1 Aug 2001 02:11:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> <9k3l9r$10i2$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B656345.64AB603A@sneakemail.com> <9k3oa1$2qg8$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B657715.7EC592D9@sneakemail.com> <3B6588FC.6D40C443@sneakemail.com> <87snfe9sir.fsf@520075220525-0001.dialin.t-online.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.89.225.32 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 996657081 20354 127.0.0.1 (1 Aug 2001 09:11:21 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 Aug 2001 09:11:21 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10925 Date: 2001-08-01T09:11:21+00:00 List-Id: Ted Dennison wrote in message news:... > In article , Milan Mancel > says... > >What really puts people off Ada is that they cannot hack code like in > >C. In Ada you have to think first. You have to think of correct types > > I have heard this so much from Ada newbies over the years (ones that I'm pretty > sure have *not* heard it from the others), that I begin to think there is a > large amount of truth in it. But I have to admit that I can't hear that > statement without chuckling. > > I shouldn't laugh, because it is meant seriously. But complaining about being > forced to think while programming is like complaining about being forced to > immerse yourself while swimming; it is the very nature of the task. A real > developer can no more sit down at a keyboard and just "hack" out a good program > than a real writer can just sit down at a word-processor and hack out a good > novel. I know some writers who actually formally outline their *emails* before > starting to write them. But for some reason this level of forethought is not > appreciated by the masses where software development is concerned. I did not complain about being forced to think first, I often try to think as hard as my lazy brain allows it. What I meant was, that this feature of Ada will put off "programmers" who know only one language (C, C++, ....) and use it for all programming tasks (one language suits all) - prototyping, testing code, "small" and "big" apps and often do not know that writing code is the one of the final stages of app development. I know what I am talking about - I was the same 15 years ago - I used C for everything. Often it is necessary to quick hack few lines of code, for example few days ago I needed to fill database with testing data of 50000 random user profiles (each user has something about 40 attributes), I would not do it in Java and definitely not in Ada (even if I was not only Ada newbie). Quick hack in Python did the job. And when I was writing this script I managed to write few classes that I find so usefull that I will rewrite them in Java and use in final application, so I think that evolutionary principle is not that bad :) I think that Ada is not good for this kind of disposable code or scripts, and I am afraid that many newbie programmers with only "one language experience" try to switch to Ada and not to use the right tool for the right job. > > >What I really miss is good and short example code of every Ada concept > >and maybe more libraries and bindings. > > You can find a bit of that in AdaPower's Source Code Treasury ( > http://www.adapower.com/adacode.html ) Yes, I find it very valuable source of information! Milan