From: Corey Minyard <minyard@acm.org>
Subject: Re: Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future
Date: 1999/02/05
Date: 1999-02-05T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <m2ogn8j0ag.fsf@wf-rch.cirr.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 790f4q$3l@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net
I've stayed out of this fray for a while, but I thought I would throw in
my 2 cents.
"Alexy V Khrabrov" <khrabrov.a@worldnet.att.net> writes:
>
> Greetings --
>
> I'm assembling a case for Ada for teaching at the University of Pennsylvania
> in Philadelphia. I compare Ada to Java, currently used here as the main
> vehicle for teaching various programming disciplines. Ben and Mike already
> provided helpful presentation support, and Tuck promised to share his
> theoretical and empirical knowledge of Ada versus Java in
> cross-implementation and action. Now, I'd like to ask all of you to
> evaluate the status of reusable software for Ada, and first and foremost, an
> analog of a standard library with basic data structures. The main reference
> point is C++ STL. I'm very concerned there's nothing near in Ada. And yet
> the main purpose of Ada is to facilitate software reuse!
>
> In a comparative assessment of programming languages, the state of existing
> reusable components is paramount. Yet for Ada, it's rather dreadful.
There are many useful reusable components for Ada. There is the Booch
components, for instance. I have written a set of components, too,
which can not come into general usage since they will compile with
gnat-3.11p :-), but not gnat-3.10p :-(.
>
> Consider this simple task: a set. In C++, you get it from the STL. How do
> you get one in Ada?
I looked very strongly at the STL as a model when I was writing my
components. I gave up on it after a while. IMHO, it is too focused
(low-level) and not general enough to be useful.
For instance, you mention sets. Well, any container is technically
either a set (no duplicates) or a bag (allows duplicates). So when I
wrote my containers, I created general set/bag operations that work on
any container type. Of course, efficiency varies with container type,
you would probably want to use the hash table or btree, but there is
nothing that prevents someone from doing a set/bag operation on a
list, for instance.
The STL seemed very inflexible on storage management, too. Not a lot
of options.
>
> There seems to be no central library equivalent to STL. I looked at HBAP,
> and it turns out many links there are dangling -- to PAL for instance.
> There's a passage diminishing STL, yet there should be a clear guide how to
> find a complete replacement of all the necessary pieces of STL. All serious
> people program with C++ and STL. If they turn to Ada, a replacement to STL
> is like the first gulp of water they need for a break.
I do agree that it would be nice if the Ada community would
standardize on a set of reusable components, but better ones than the
STL. Maybe we could come up with a standards committee for this?
Maybe not, those things take forever :-).
> Can you please share your thoughts on the status of an Ada STL? (Let's code
> name it Ada STL for the purpose of discussion.) Is there anything close for
> Ada 95? What are YOU guys using for your Ada programming? I can't believe
> each of you has a jar with homegrown sets, linked lists, and queues, all
> implemented differently! OK, let's start small. Can you please tell me
> with as more URLs as possible, what exactly you use when you need
>
> 1. Linked lists
> 2. Trees
> 3. Queues
> 4. Sets
>
> I feel Sets are the litmus tests for an Ada STL. Where do you guys get
> sets?
> It's very important to assess the situation, and I hope to hear from you
> with as much detail as your busy schedules permit.
My components have all of these (and a lot more). You can get them at
http://www.concentric.net/~Minyard.
Comments are welcome.
--
Corey Minyard Internet: minyard@acm.org
Work: minyard@nortelnetworks.com UUCP: minyard@wf-rch.cirr.com
prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-02-05 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 102+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-01-31 0:00 Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future Alexy V Khrabrov
1999-01-31 0:00 ` Simon Wright
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Jeff Carter
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Stanley R. Allen
1999-02-01 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Alexy V Khrabrov
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Jeff Carter
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Ehud Lamm
1999-02-02 0:00 ` Pointer Arithmetic (was: Wanted: Ada STL....) adam
1999-02-02 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-03 0:00 ` adam
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-03 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-02 0:00 ` Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future Brian Rogoff
1999-02-02 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Ehud Lamm
1999-02-03 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Hyman Rosen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Hyman Rosen
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-06 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Ehud Lamm
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Al Christians
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Pat Rogers
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Pat Rogers
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-06 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-08 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-08 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-08 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-09 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-09 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-07 0:00 ` Simon Wright
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Open Source Licensing (was: Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future) dennison
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-09 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-09 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future robert_dewar
1999-02-09 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-10 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-07 0:00 ` Simon Wright
[not found] ` <36ba730b.35540068@ <79fmg1$fn0$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
1999-02-06 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-06 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
[not found] ` <79f24e$t14 <36BB4162.52FC6D9F@averstar.com>
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-08 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-09 0:00 ` micro_ada
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-08 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-02 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Corey Minyard [this message]
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