Re: += in ada

[Georg Bauhaus <sb463ba@l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de>]

Russ <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com> wrote:
:> > > On 2003-10-07, Russ <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com> wrote:
:> > > > Repeat after me: Augmented assignment is available and WIDELY USED in
:> > > > C, C++, Java, Perl, and Python, perhaps the 5 most popular
:> > > > general-purpose programming languages ever designed.

Interesting. What about Visual Basic? What about Turbo Pascal?

Also, with respect to the syntactic choice += etc, I think one could boil
C, Java, and Perl down to 1 language, not 3. Or is there a difference
in "+=" in these languages, from a user perspective?


: What I am
: claiming is that 98% of programmers use them *because* they are a good
: idea.

Do you have any figure telling us which of the augmented operators
are used most frequently, and in what places?
How often they are overloaded in programs, e.g. C++'s "/="?

: And I have given three good reasons why augmented assignment
: operators can enhance both readability and efficiency. I won't go over
: them again here because if you don't get it by now you never will.

`At what price', you have been asked, IIRC?

: No rational reason given.
: 
: The only rational reply I have received so far is that augmented
: assignment operators are too much effort to implement.

"Too much effort" is a wording with certain implications when
it comes to programming, right? What O(f(n)) for implementing
a consistent augmented assignment in Ada does your analysis reveal?

: Well, they
: obviously weren't too much effort for C, C++, Java, Perl, and Python.

That is actually not an argument I think, because
b/ What is the meaning of += in a non-sequential C-, or Perl-program?
c/ How do you define your own += in Java, say, such that it
   is useful for your own types?

: It's really too bad that Ada is so strapped for support. That obvously
: doesn't bode well for the future of Ada.

Interesting. So programming languages are obviously chosen because
there is some form of augmented assinment in the language?
Why do people choose Visual Basic, or Fortran, or Delphi?


Georg