Re: Limited use for limited with?

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

"Georg Bauhaus" <rm-host.bauhaus@maps.futureapps.de> wrote in message 
news:4cb57156$0$7654$9b4e6d93@newsspool1.arcor-online.net...
> On 10/13/10 4:09 AM, Randy Brukardt wrote:
...
> Is it realistic to assume that such a large, multi-organization,
> changing system can be modeled with "known specific handler"
> in mind?  Without pointers, but scope based?

Ada would be a lousy choice for such a system. Most of Ada's advantages are 
predicated on compile-time checking of correctness, and that is impossible 
by definition for a dynamically changing system without a defined structure.

You could use Ada if you have very strong interfaces (and I don't mean 
interfaces the language feature but simply the totality of the type 
definitions, subprogram profiles and the like) for the plug-ins. But that 
still requires a lot more organization than you are postulating here.

I wouldn't argue that there are such systems -- any widely-used OS would be 
similar. (Although even there the interfaces and interactions could be much 
better defined than in your thought experiment). Just because they exist 
doesn't mean that Ada is well-suited to program them.

                                Randy.