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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,5cb36983754f64da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-04-13 05:57:46 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamkiller2.gnilink.net!gnilink.net!nwrdny02.gnilink.net.POSTED!0f19ed38!not-for-mail From: "Frank J. Lhota" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: Subject: Re: No call for Ada (was Re: Announcing newscripting/prototyping language) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Message-ID: Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 12:57:45 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.154.209.218 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: nwrdny02.gnilink.net 1081861065 141.154.209.218 (Tue, 13 Apr 2004 08:57:45 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 08:57:45 EDT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7048 Date: 2004-04-13T12:57:45+00:00 List-Id: "Alexander E. Kopilovich" wrote in message news:mailman.245.1081816967.327.comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org... > I can't agree with this claim. Their COBOL was probably weaker then IBM COBOL, > their PL/I was probably (I didn't try it, but I have read some docs) weaker > than IBM's PL/I Optimizer/Checkout pair, their Fortan IV was not better > than IBM Fortran H (although for Fortran 77 the situation possibly was in > favor of DEC). I cannot vouch for all of the VAX compilers, but their Ada and PL/1 compilers were very good. Also, their Fortran and Basic compilers had some very nice extensions to the base language. Before Visual Basic, VAX Basic was definitely the best version of Basic I've seen. Some of the VAX utilities are written in VAX Basic. One pleasant aspect of the VAX / VMS development environment is their support for multi-language programming, i. e. the use of more than one programming language in the development of an application. Using the VAX compilers, you could write a program with parts done in Fortran, Ada, and PL/1. From the PL/1code, you could signal a PL/1 condition that would handled by an Ada exception handler! I know of no other platform where that was possible at the time. Currently, the best platform for doing multi-language programming has to be the Gnu compiler collection. I'm especially impressed with the GNAT C++ interface that allows interfacing with C++ classes. They are pioneers in the area of inter-language operatability of objects.