Re: Weakness of Ada is expensive / security / etc. ? Anything else?

[Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP>]

On 2015-07-17, Trish Cayetano <trishacayetano@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, here is what I have noted as strengths and weaknesses of Ada. Let me know for any corrections and if you have anything to add... Thank you!
>
> Strength and weaknesses of the language 
> Strength
> -	Semantics - well defined even in error situations
> -	Strong typing - can be used to reduce the scope (and cost) of analysis
> -	Quality - successfully used in many high integrity applications 
>
> Weaknesses
> -	Ada complete language is too complex. True or False? If true, how?

The Ada language is also nicely modular. This means that you only need to
use the features which are appropriate to the problem at hand. It also
means you can write full Ada programs in a core subset of the language
without having to learn all it's features.

> -	Ada requires expensive compilers for large systems 

That's an incredibly sore point in some parts around here. You are
hereby warned about some of the responses you might get. :-)

For the serious response to this, the expense of the compiler depends
on the support required and the licence conditions of your code. If you
are willing to release the source code for any redistributed binaries
under the GPL more options open up.

However, this one item by itself puts Ada at a major disadvantage when
compared to other options such as C and C++.

> -	Ada lacks that web presence greatly. comp.lang.ada is the only location on the internet with an active Ada community.

There are various resources scattered around the web, but comp.lang.ada
does appear to be the only major place for active discussions (apart
from some discussions on Stack Overflow).

> -	How is security a weakness? (Strength can be a weakness too?)

Is this homework ? (the question seems to be worded in a strange way
and I don't really understand what you are trying to ask here).

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world