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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,583275b6950bf4e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,5f529c91be2ac930 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,899fc98b2883af4a X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-20 13:53:07 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed.freenet.de!lon1-news.nildram.net!195.149.20.147.MISMATCH!mercury.nildram.co.uk!not-for-mail Message-ID: Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 21:52:39 +0100 From: Tom Welsh Reply-To: Tom Welsh Sender: Tom Welsh Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Logic Errors and Ada (Was: A big hairy thread on Ada, Quality, and Drivers) References: <9fa75d42.0304230424.10612b1a@posting.google.com> <254c16a.0305140549.3a87281b@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305141747.5680c577@posting.google.com> <1053027582.984315@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <3ec4b5c5$1@news.wineasy.se> <254c16a.0305160930.40bb42f9@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305181502.53703035@posting.google.com> <3EC95355.A6B66F5C@somewhere.nil> <9fa75d42.0305200821.46ac73bf@posting.google.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: Turnpike Integrated Version 5.01 U NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.208.100.157 X-Trace: 1053463988 mercury.nildram.net 45187 213.208.100.157 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.java.advocacy:64291 comp.object:63767 comp.lang.ada:37568 comp.software-eng:19322 Date: 2003-05-20T21:52:39+01:00 List-Id: In article <9fa75d42.0305200821.46ac73bf@posting.google.com>, soft-eng writes > >This from supporters of a 20-year language on life-support? >(In human years I guess that's like a 250 years old or >something, fighting with the remaining tooth and nail >for the good-old-days.) Are you implying that older languages are necessarily worse? That is not always true by any means... "Algol 60 was not only an improvement on its predecessors, but also on nearly all its successors" - C. A. R. Hoare Don't forget that C is nearly twice as old as Ada (Ada-83, that is, the older version). And Bjarne Stroustrup invented "C with classes", which later became known as C++, in 1979 - four years before the first Ada compilers appeared. If a 20-year-old language is like a 250-year-old person, I guess C must be more like a 400-year-old. As for that Methuselah of languages, COBOL, which dates back to 1959-61, that would correspond to over 500 years. Which is probably why there are some 200 billion lines of COBOL code in active service, accounting for 70-85 percent of the world's business systems. (And before you say it's all old, another 5 billion lines of COBOL is written every year according to Gartner). New is not always better. -- Tom Welsh