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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,a0be06fbc0dd71f1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!sn-xt-sjc-05!sn-xt-sjc-09!sn-post-sjc-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Brian May Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: The future of Ada is at risk Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:11:30 +1100 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: References: <20071229040639.f753f982.coolzone@it.dk> <13oe680qard6u2d@corp.supernews.com> <47887709.9030107@obry.net> User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:IraYHAK7gpvwfgQyxXkBX9+cwJ8= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19340 Date: 2008-01-12T21:11:30+11:00 List-Id: >>>>> "Pascal" == Pascal Obry writes: >>> On the contrary, this [user-defined numeric types] more often than >>> not obfuscates, particularly for future maintainance purposes. >> >> On the contrary, properly used they catch numerous development >> errors at compilation (that with the "everything's Integer" approach >> become run-time errors, often remaining in the delivered system), >> reducing the need for future maintenance. That's the point of using >> a strongly typed language over something like C. Pascal> Agreed 100%, I don't even see a single argument to state the opposite. They require careful design. If abused, e.g. if you use two many types, you end up constantly casting from one type to another, and you miss the benefits. This comes back to the discussion of programmers vs software engineers. Unfortunately, the attitude I have seen too often is "how do I make this work right now?" as opposed to "how do I incorporate this change properly into the design?" because it is perceived that the former is faster and more likely to win clients/users. Once the clients/users are committed to the software, then you can try to fix the bugs the clients/users find. By then it is too late to worry about getting the design or language right though. You are too busy adding the next major feature. -- Brian May