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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,c5f68ab74d5099ee X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Received: by 10.68.75.170 with SMTP id d10mr3158912pbw.6.1324424196339; Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:36:36 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Path: lh20ni45846pbb.0!nntp.google.com!news2.google.com!news4.google.com!proxad.net!feeder1-2.proxad.net!feeder.erje.net!nuzba.szn.dk!news.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!jacob-sparre.dk!ada-dk.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Interfaces.Shift_Left Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:36:32 -0600 Organization: Jacob Sparre Andersen Research & Innovation Message-ID: References: <18214312-82f5-45c4-b20d-cb530b500929@h3g2000yqa.googlegroups.com> <5f989095-5c1c-4b23-a538-d70f4718b4b1@l19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com> <9ktu5mFn31U1@mid.individual.net> <9l71m2FlhuU1@mid.individual.net> <9lc6bqFfhrU1@mid.individual.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: static-69-95-181-76.mad.choiceone.net X-Trace: munin.nbi.dk 1324424195 3847 69.95.181.76 (20 Dec 2011 23:36:35 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@jacob-sparre.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:36:35 +0000 (UTC) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Response X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.6157 Date: 2011-12-20T17:36:32-06:00 List-Id: "Niklas Holsti" wrote in message news:9lc6bqFfhrU1@mid.individual.net... ... > Is that based on some survey of reasons why Ada is used? That would be > interesting. I agree with that ranking only for some Ada applications -- > the traditional embedded, bare-machine programs that access hardware > registers. Programs that deal with communication protocols may also > qualify. And even there, I would not put record representation clauses > close to the top of the 5 top reasons. No, just my gut feeling. At lot of the things that make Ada unique aren't things that you really can sell to outsiders (that is, non-Ada users that might be interested in using Ada). For instance, I find that the syntax of Ada has just the right level of verbosity (not so much as to be a pain, not so little as to allow one to write something other than what they meant to be legal). Most languages (especially C-based syntaxes) don't have enough. But I doubt I'm going to convince many others of that, at least not until they've had the experience of using Ada for a while. Another truly valuable feature of Ada is the complete coverage rule for case statements, aggregates, and the like. The amount of time that it can save when adding a new kind of thing (enumeration literal, record component, etc.) is amazing. (As the compiler points out the places you've forgotten to change; errors of omission are by far the hardest to find.) But again, this is a tough sell until you've had the compiler find errors for you. Most of the big picture things (like packages and generics) are available in other languages, and Ada's advantages with them are subtle (physical separation of interface and implementation; the contract model of generic) -- these are also not that easy to describe to potential users. The net effect of all of these smallish things leads to a much bigger advantage when put together -- but there is nothing "sexy" about any of them. Representation clauses in general at least are easy to explain and almost everybody remembers times when they would have preferred that the compiler did the packing/unpacking of fields. So they make a good lead for the advantages of Ada. Randy.