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=-1.7 required=5.0 tests=AXB_XMAILER_MIMEOLE_OL_024C2, BAYES_00,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,3a3dffa82925efee X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!proxad.net!usenet-fr.net!enst.fr!melchior!cuivre.fr.eu.org!melchior.frmug.org!not-for-mail From: "Andrew Carroll" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Advantages Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 01:04:27 -0600 Organization: Cuivre, Argent, Or Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: lovelace.ada-france.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org 1088318819 67762 212.85.156.195 (27 Jun 2004 06:46:59 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 06:46:59 +0000 (UTC) To: Return-Path: X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p7 (Debian) at ada-france.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Gateway to the comp.lang.ada Usenet newsgroup" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:1946 Date: 2004-06-27T01:04:27-06:00 > ------------------------------ > Message: 5 > From: Marin David Condic > Subject: Re: Advantages > > I'm not sure what you want for statistical proof. In my experience with > writing low-level software in an environment where I don't have an OS, I [snip] I don't doubt anything that you said. You are more experienced with it than I am! I'm sure, as I know and you said, MANY of the answers I seek can really only be obtained from experience. If I asked "what features of Ada provide the biggest advantages to writing system software?" what would you say? So far two people mentioned the tasking features of Ada. Great, I trust you! What features of Ada make it easier to detect pitfalls in parallel programming? What features of Ada help with debugging? Have any tests been done to show that Ada tasking features are better that other languages' "tasking" features if the model is the same? If so, where are the results? How much better were the Ada tasking features? > Try to get two different CPUs synchronized across some communication link or deal with some I/O device where timing or synchronization are important to > getting it right. So if I did try, what features of Ada are going to help me? > Its the uncertainty of when things are happening or the fact that dozens of things are happening nearly all at once and corner conditions can come up that are > difficult to test and difficult to program around. So your saying that the real time features of Ada help to remove the "race condition" uncertainty and deal with corner conditions? > I'm not saying someone can't do a better job with Ada - just that an OS is *really hard* to make stable and secure and it isn't something that can be done in a > few weekends of coding and hope it will somehow be better. What features of Ada help to make an OS stable and secure? Bounds checking? Typing? Rendezvous? Protected Objects? Andrew