Re: rant (Re: Ada featured in Doctor Dobb's Journal )

["Dr. Adrian Wrigley" <amtw@linuxchip.demon.co.uk.uk.uk>]

On Sun, 18 May 2008 01:21:57 +0200, Ludovic Brenta wrote:

> jhc0033 writes:
>>> But that doesn't make C++ suitable for those either.  I think he
>>> rather had scripting languages like Perl in mind.
>>
>> I don't think that makes sense in his context and time. The whole
>> comparison was C++ vs Ada.
> 
> No, you are wrong.  The presentation contains several comparisons of
> Ada with several other languages besides C++ (including COBOL,
> Fortran, Pascal, Eiffel and C).
> 
>> Why suddenly assume he meant some other language on this particular
>> slide?
> 
> Because this is a presentation about why Ada is better than all
> alternatives considered, not a presentation about C++.  Because slide
> http://archive.adaic.com/docs/present/engle/comments/tsld018.htm lists
> only variants of the "lemming argument" to explain why anyone would
> want to use C++.  Because the last 10 slides or so are all in praise
> and support of Ada.
> 
> The author does not specifically say which language he would recommend
> for prototyping.  I know I would personally recommend Ada.

I think Ada is great for prototyping too.

Often, the code is in great flux when prototyping, and the Ada features
really work in your favor by ensuring consistency and catching the
mistakes early.

For very prototyping simple projects, scripting languages are fast,
but errors and inconsistencies creep in quickly.  The code tends not
to last as long because of inflexibility (poor/missing structuring tools
such as packages and generics in scripting).
--
Adrian