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: 103376,1116ece181be1aea X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-09-28 16:38:49 PST Path: news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: 18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada? Date: 28 Sep 2003 16:38:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: References: <3F7024F8.1000102@crs4.it> <3F71A78A.5000701@crs4.it> <3F76F0E4.2090901@noplace.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.194.87.148 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1064792328 22039 127.0.0.1 (28 Sep 2003 23:38:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Sep 2003 23:38:48 GMT Xref: news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:94 Date: 2003-09-28T23:38:48+00:00 List-Id: Marin David Condic wrote in message news:<3F76F0E4.2090901@noplace.com>... > I would seriously question the assumption that adding short-circuit > operators such as += are going to attract much attention and get the C++ > programmers to abandon their language of choice and come over to Ada. It > would be *far* more productive to spend effort on Ada > compilers/environments in ways that add leverage to development efforts. > I'd even be in favor of leaving all the syntax & semantics of Ada alone > in exchange for providing things like a big library or standard GUI or > anything else that made Ada attractive with respect to producing better > software faster than can be done in some other language. That's the sort > of thing that can create *real* benefits for most development efforts > and attract new business away from other languages. You have yet to explain why the two are mutually exclusive. Plus I still think you are missing the point about operators that are available in C, C++, Java. Perl, and Python. The point is not that putting augmented assignment operators into Ada is going to draw a huge new following. Of course not. The point is that *not* having them may be a *significant* factor in keeping new programmers away. I'll bet ":=" is a factor too, but let's not get into that now (the fact that no other popular language uses it might be a clue).