Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada?

[aek@vib.usr.pu.ru (Alexander Kopilovitch)]

Marin David Condic wrote:

>After all, Ada'a type String is really no different than that of C.

I spoke not just about String, but primarily about Unbounded_String.

> C++ has inherited C's concept of string and essentially come up
> with their own "Unbounded_String" with a class. The two are no more
> related than Ada's String and Unbounded_String.

They may be no more related in language lawyer's view or implementor's view,
but they surely are much more related in application programmer's view:
you can assign a C-string (including most important case of literal string)
to C++ (class) string quite straightforwardly, without any convertions (it
doesn't matter which implicit methods are applied behind the scenes there).
In fact, conceptually C-string is just a "property" (or part) of C++ string
object - quite strong relation. isn't it?.

> Language popularity is far less concerned with this or that specific
> syntax feature and far more concerned with "big issues".

Ada 95 already addressed those "big issues", quite enough to be attractive.
What is wrong here - concerning popularity - is rigid maintenance of too straight
preference of hardware-related concept over application-related concept in one
particularly sensitive (for non-corporate application programmers) point.

> So what does Ada offer that will address some crying need out there in
> ProgrammerLand? I'd bet good money it won't be "We changed String and
> Unbounded_String to be the same thing..."

Certainly you'll never hear massive crying about that String/Unbounded_String
issue. This is not a thing that makes people crying, but this is high enough 
barrier for those undecided people who are just tasting the language. From
this issue too many of them quickly acquire a feeling that the language design
goals were somehow alien.

(Metaphorically, it is like an "improper" slight current of smell... if you
recognize that feeling then you can overcome it (appropriately adjusting criteria
in your internal recognizers/classifiers of good and bad smell), but if not -
then the feeling will effectively deter you from a closer contact.)



Alexander Kopilovitch                      aek@vib.usr.pu.ru
Saint-Petersburg
Russia