Re: Do people who use Ada also use ocaml or F#?

[Jeffrey Carter <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org>]

On 10/30/2010 04:30 PM, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57) wrote:
> These miss-understandings may be more caused by the attempt to map a
> language onto another (someone coming from A to B, who try to do A with
> B), than caused by the language, as tutorials and books about learning
> the language (Ada) does not really push to these miss-understandings
> (just think about JP. Rosen frequently talking about HOOD, even when he
> does not name it). Ada on-line books are more oriented towards safe
> practices. When tagged type are push onto the front, this is just as a
> reply to people convinced Ada does not support it (the supposed
> audience, is people who know what there are looking for and what they do).

Not at all. I've been using Ada since 1984, and am reckoned to have a passable 
understanding of it. I am reasonably familiar with the programming-by-extension 
features (see my use of a type extension to avoid access types in a recent 
discussion of S expressions), but I have made several errors when dealing with 
code that uses these features in their more normal, obfuscatory manner. Normally 
I would think it's just a failing on my part, but the many problems others have 
had help me think that maybe it's not.

HOOD is a design method, and has nothing to do with programming by extension, 
which is an implementation technique that has nothing to do with object 
orientedness. I've have written plenty of object-oriented S/W that does not use 
programming by extension, and (unfortunately) seen far too much S/W that uses 
programming by extension that is not object oriented.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Blessed are they who convert their neighbors'
oxen, for they shall inhibit their girth."
Monty Python's Life of Brian
83