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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.107.6.80 with SMTP id 77mr23728531iog.11.1437922299684; Sun, 26 Jul 2015 07:51:39 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.140.101.243 with SMTP id u106mr425512qge.27.1437922299554; Sun, 26 Jul 2015 07:51:39 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.glorb.com!pg9no4146470igb.0!news-out.google.com!b31ni716qge.0!nntp.google.com!69no2045185qgl.1!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 07:51:39 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <084c0dc7-ae74-4cb8-b1fe-78f42de94291@googlegroups.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=81.203.145.32; posting-account=AFCLjAoAAABJAOf_HjgEEEi3ty-lG5m2 NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.203.145.32 References: <084c0dc7-ae74-4cb8-b1fe-78f42de94291@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Weakness of Ada is expensive / security / etc. ? Anything else? From: EGarrulo Injection-Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 14:51:39 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:27014 Date: 2015-07-26T07:51:39-07:00 List-Id: I am new to Ada, but so far I have noticed a few things... *Strenghts*: - compiles to native executables, hence no need for runtimes; - no need for runtimes, hence your application will start quickly; - executables are small (as a comparison, compilers for other languages may= produce executables of many megabytes for simple programs); - fast executables (comparable to C); - generic code does not carry a runtime penalty (like in Java); - consistent design of the language; - everything is explicit, hence the compiler does not perform any clever tr= icks beyond your back (like in C++). *Weaknesses*: > - Ada complete language is too complex. True or False? If true, how? Rather than "complex", I would say "rich", because there are lots of featur= es that are meant to tune your application in different ways, but you can s= afely ignore them while you learn (this is not the case with C++). > - Ada requires expensive compilers for large systems=20 Even if this were the case -- and it is not, because of the FSF GNAT -- who= would develop large systems without enough financial resources? And when = you are developing large systems, you should know that other (missing) qual= ities of your tools may cost you much more than what you saved by relying o= n the wrong tool because it was cheap. On the other hand, expensive compil= ers are a problem for small shops, but this is not the case anyway for Ada,= as said. > - Ada lacks that web presence greatly. comp.lang.ada is the only location= on the internet with an active Ada community. Web presence doesn't impress the knowledgeable professional. What matters = is whether you can get answers or not, and the quality of those answers (th= e so called "signal to noise ratio"). Other weaknesses: - books are outdated: AFAIK, there is only one (recommended) book that is b= ased on Ada 2012; all other available books are based on Ada 95 (while the = basics may be still relevant, you may wish to learn modern techniques from= the start); - the GNAT GPS is good, but lacks some polishing (and I am using a version = that freezes randomly); I don't know what are the alternatives... maybe I = will try Emacs; - manual memory management (garbage collection is optional, but in practice= not available; apparently there are implementations of the "Shared Referen= ce/Weak Reference" pattern, but I have yet to investigate them). - lack of introspection for generics: you have to "spoon-feed" the compiler= to instantiate a generic unit, when the compiler should infer types on its= own: this makes the code more verbose than it should.