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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,77b3d5e1a20fffd1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: mheaney@ni.net (Matthew Heaney) Subject: Re: About Ada... Date: 1997/11/30 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 294029411 References: <19971130215101.QAA07721@ladder01.news.aol.com> Organization: Estormza Software Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-11-30T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <19971130215101.QAA07721@ladder01.news.aol.com>, spiffy1two@aol.com (Spiffy1two) wrote: >I've been programming in Basic for a while, and now I'm trying to learn Turbo >Pascal. What is Ada? Ada is the language of choice for building large, safety-critical systems. In fact, Ada is the only internationally standardized object-oriented programming language (though I understand the draft ISO C++ standard was recently accepted). You can get lots of info at the Ada home page. You can get a free, high-quality compiler, called GNAT, available on many platforms. >It's the military's official programming language, right? More like unofficial language. It used to be the case, when the Ada Mandate was in effect, that warfighting systems had to be built using Ada, unless accompanied by a waiver. The current policy is to select a programming language in the context of a defined, systems engineering process. But don't make the mistake of thinking that only military contractors use Ada. Quite the contrary. Many commercial shops use Ada, and Ada is the language of choice for railroad control, air traffic control, and other domains that have safety-critical requirements. For example, the new Boeing 777 is an all-Ada plane. The Ada home has a list of organizations using Ada. >But are there any advantages to learning Ada over other languages? Are >most of you just Army Programmers? :) This programmer is decidedly NOT an "army programmer." :-) I use Ada by choice, because it is the best technology available for writing real-time embedded systems. Although it is based on Pascal, it definately is NOT Pascal. It fixed the idiosyncrasies in that language, and extended it by adding support for programming-in-the-large, concurrency, and low-level programming. Learning a language isn't a zero-sum game, either. Just because you learn Ada doesn't mean you can't learn other languages too! Learn Ada and other languages, and you'll prove to yourself that it's better. Basically, if you'd rather get your work done, instead of spending all day in front of a debugger, then use Ada! And the compiler's free, so what are you waiting for? >Sorry if I make myself sound >stupid in this message but it's kind of hard writing a message about something >you know nothing about... There's no such thing as a dumb question. At least you approach new technology with an open mind. For too many programmers dismiss what they don't understand. You're willing to learn, which puts you light-years ahead of others! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Heaney Software Development Consultant (818) 985-1271