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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10261c,90121986704b5776 X-Google-Attributes: gid10261c,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 10c950,90121986704b5776 X-Google-Attributes: gid10c950,public From: jfbode@nospam.mail.earthlink.net (John Bode) Subject: Re: ADA and Pascal SUCK, C,C++, and Java are the only languages you need!! Date: 1997/10/29 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 286700198 References: <34557f2b.1934172@news.mindspring.com> <34566fe9.447229@news.mindspring.com> <345673af.1413708@news.mindspring.com> <3456b9f3.0@news.eznet.net> <636m6l$55t@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net> Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.lang.pascal.ansi-iso,comp.lang.pascal.misc Date: 1997-10-29T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <636m6l$55t@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net>, "Shombe Kroll" wrote: > Hello everyone, I hate to say it but my sentiments are with Mr. Black to a > small degree. My first programming class in college was in ADA and I found > it very difficult to learn because of the lack of documentation and help > aids for the language. I had the exact same experience, but the language was C. > That forced me to rely on my Professor for help > which unfortunately was like pulling teeth. The lack of being able to > obtain outside sources from my local computer store ie : "ADA for Dummies" > left me with a feeling of complete frustration while I spent the semester > copying and reediting code from my fellow struggling classmates in order to > pass the course. I had the exact same experience, but the language was C. > However, struggling with ADA did give me an appreciation for the process of > writing source code, and I have found that the fundamentals that I learned > with ADA are applicable to me as I learn C++. <-- By the way this time I am > writing my own code), > Having learned C before Ada, I too found Ada overy picky -- at first. However, after writing several thousand lines of code, I came to appreciate it. Yes, Ada has a steeper *initial* learning curve than C. The tradeoff comes after several months of practice. With Ada, the learning curve tapers off rather quickly, whereas with C or C++, the learning curve is flatter -- it's easier to get started coding, but it takes a longer time to become truly *proficient* with the language. So why isn't Ada in more widespread use? Ada compilers, being somewhat larger and more complex than C compilers, are likewise more expensive. Ada was never marketed toward business -- it was designed for a specific problem domain, and some of the more esoteric features were not perceived to be immediately valuable (unfortunately -- hell, the exception handling mechanism *alone* could simplify things by orders of magnitude). The Ada development environment typically requires more horsepower than the C development environment -- up until very recently, *serious* Ada development required workstation-class machines. But the *biggest* reason C is in such demand? Inertia. People started using C for no other reason than it was available and it was cheap and you could develop C code on an AT-class machine. It certainly wasn't for technical superiority. Over the past twenty years, a *lot* of code has been written in C, so you need a lot of developers familiar with C to maintain it, and since all they know is C, all new development is done in C, etc., etc., etc. Suddenly, along comes C++, and all that C experience gets leveraged into what appears to be a fully buzzword-compliant OOL that, in reality, falls short of what an OOL could and should be. Ada certainly isn't the be-all and end-all of OOP, but I find it a lot easier to deal with than C++. -- John Bode one grumpy code monkey "Paranoia is just reality on a finer scale" -- Strange Days To email me directly, remove the 'nospam.' from my address.