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: 10261c,cfbb90c56a313e70 X-Google-Attributes: gid10261c,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,cfbb90c56a313e70 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: marcov@snail.stack.nl (Marco van de Voort) Subject: Re: From extended Pascals to Ada 95 guide Date: 2000/08/25 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 662332382 References: <8o3s2a$9ph$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <8o4bfq$v0h$1@slb7.atl.mindspring.net> <39A655BE.18E89020@maths.unine.ch> Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands User-Agent: slrn/0.9.6.2 (FreeBSD) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.pascal.misc Date: 2000-08-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <39A655BE.18E89020@maths.unine.ch>, Gautier wrote: >James Smith: > >> Too bad the US gov didn't save some taxpayer dollars by just adopting Modula >> 2. Of course that would have made too much sense. > >To save dollars they also could have adopted C... Then the American subs would lie on the bottom of the ocean too I think:-) C is simply known to introduce more bugs. >With Modula-2, they should have spent perhaps more than Ada to make it usable... Can't judge that, don't know ADA enough. >The main problem with Modula-2 is that it keeps the rigid types >of "classic" Pascal. No problem for teaching or write a >"Pascal in Pascal" compiler, but for the real world you need >a flexible typing like "array(integer range <>) of..." That type safety avoids bugs. In the real world where you whack a GUI for some users that is less of a problem. In subs, you don't want that. >The second problem is the modularity: you have to open manually >the visibility for *all* identifiers you need! Or use them qualified. Again a very good principle, which I miss dearly from pascal, introduced again to avoid bugs. > It made things >easier for writing a compiler, but it rapidily took longer to >write and maintain the "FROM...IMPORT..."s, with correct casing, >than to write your programs. Just extrapolate the "Hello World" >to have an idea... >MODULE PrintHelloWorld; > >FROM InOut IMPORT WriteString, WriteLn; > >BEGIN > WriteString('Hello world!'); > WriteLn; >END PrintHelloWorld. I don't see any problem? >Another big problem was the library: there were vague recommendations >for text I/O, and iirc, nothing more. As a result, even "Hello World" >was non portable: some compilers wanted "WriteString('Hello world!');", >others wanted "WRITESTRING('Hello world!');" I let you guess what the >mess was with Math libraries... Also not a problem when an uniform system througout the military is used. >Finally I doubt that the average US programmer would have been >patient enough to stand more than 5 minutes before Modula-2... If they get confused by this, then they shouldn't be programming critical applications at all.