Re: No call for Ada (was Re: Announcing new scripting/prototyping language)

["Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" <aek@VB1162.spb.edu>]

David Starner wrote:

> >> The goal of programming is to produce programs that get the job done.
> > 
> > [...] I must tell you that this statement is severely
> > flawed. Programming is not covered by compilation and scripting. Generally,
> > major part of programming is to define precisely and formally, *what* is the
> > job, and what does it mean that this job *is done*. 
>
> And once you have the program at a state where it needs no more
> programming, all that goes into a drawer and disappears.

That may be true for programs with short lifecycles and no (or very little)
maintenance anticipated (but even for those kind of programs that isn't always
true). But here in comp.lang.ada newsgroup we speak primarily about Ada language,
which was designed specifically for applications with long lifecycles and
substantial amount of maintenance. In such circumstances permanent tracking
of the meaning of "job" and "is done" for the application is necessary. 

> That is part of
> what needs to be done to get a program that gets the job done, but that's
> not part of the goal; that's part of the process.

When you expect long lifecycle and much maintenance, the relations between
the goal and the process aren't so simple and straitforward. In fact, providing
good support for a long process is a major part of the goal.




Alexander Kopilovitch                      aek@vib.usr.pu.ru
Saint-Petersburg
Russia