Re: why learn C?

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"kevin cline" <kevin.cline@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1175501959.751535.23190@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> On Apr 2, 2:52 am, "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail...@dmitry-kazakov.de>
> wrote:
>
> > 1. Here you compare the language of templates (a quite crippled one)
with
> > the language in which the Ada compiler was written.
>
> Probably C or C++.

The front-end of every Ada compiler that I know of (and know the
implementation language) is written in Ada. Some of them use shared
back-ends that are out of their control and are likely written in other
things.

My experience is that Ada is a great language for writing a compiler,
because it has strong type checking that is hard to circumvent. The issues
with type systems (like physical units) are irrelevant to compiler
construction.

I'm not quite sure why you're so concerned about generics/templates anyway.
There is little reason to write a generic if all you want to do is create
types in Ada: you just write an appropriate type declaration and package.
(Maybe it is because C++ doesn't have a separate encapsulation mechanism, so
you're pretty much stuck using classes for anything.) Yes, I agree that
writing a good package for units is a pain (especially since the method
you're suggesting won't work; it's probably best to just bite the bullet and
write out every operation you need), but you only have to do it once per
organization. (And the Amendment fixed the most important problem in Ada 95:
the inability to "erase" an inappropriate operation from a unit type
package.)

                                Randy.