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=-2.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,5cb36983754f64da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-02-13 20:35:44 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!fr.ip.ndsoftware.net!news.cs.univ-paris8.fr!univ-lyon1.fr!in2p3.fr!proxad.net!usenet-fr.net!enst.fr!melchior!cuivre.fr.eu.org!melchior.frmug.org!not-for-mail From: "Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: No call for Ada (was Re: Announcing new scripting/prototyping language) Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 07:48:02 +0300 (MSK) Organization: Cuivre, Argent, Or Message-ID: References: <7ridnSngofCUybDd4p2dnA@comcast.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lovelace.ada-france.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org 1076733224 65802 80.67.180.195 (14 Feb 2004 04:33:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 04:33:44 +0000 (UTC) To: comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org Return-Path: In-Reply-To: <7ridnSngofCUybDd4p2dnA@comcast.com>; from "Robert I. Eachus" at Fri, 13 Feb 2004 17:47:36 -0500 X-Mailer: Mail/@ [v2.44 MSDOS] X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p5 (Debian) at ada-france.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.3 Precedence: list List-Id: Gateway to the comp.lang.ada Usenet newsgroup List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:5562 Date: 2004-02-14T07:48:02+03:00 Robert I. Eachus wrote: > > Do you know a big country, in which own military history isn't > > glorious? -:) > > France of course, but not in French. As I can see (having read several books somehow related to France's war history), American view (perhaps English view too, but I don't know) on this matter is quite interesting: in short summary, beginning from 12 century France almost never win a war, it always either lost or just managed to save pre-war status at the end (one exception is WW1, but the decisive factor there was American intervention in the final stage of the war, so it was actually more American then French victory - France alone would lose as usual). And with all that, France somehow managed to maintain continuously her state, character, morale, language, and her status of one of the most important intellectual and artistic centers of the world. One can conclude that all those defeats were somehow incomplete... > Do you know of any other country > where the man touted as the most brilliant General (Napolean) is more > famous for his losses than his victories. (Waterloo and the retreat > from Moscow.) Well, here in Russia we know about Napoleon's retreat from Moscow quite well -:) . But we also know that that was very big achievement - to reach Moscow (without tanks, railways and even cars). And before Moscow and Waterloo he had many victories - in fact he won several local wars. He certainly was brilliant general of his time, and his errors in war with Russia weren't military errors, they were geopolitical errors... but those errors seem unavoidable for a brilliant and successful general who became Emperor (and those who wish Ada to become Great Mainstream Language can take a lesson from this old story -:) . But if you still need "another country" - try to look at Sweden (I heard not once that most revered Swedish king is exactly that who lost war with Russia and brought Sweden many losses, including important territorial losses). Alexander Kopilovitch aek@vib.usr.pu.ru Saint-Petersburg Russia