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-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-30 05:52:12 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!129.240.148.23!uio.no!ntnu.no!not-for-mail From: randhol@kiuk0156.chembio.ntnu.no (Preben Randhol) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 12:52:11 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Norwegian university of science and technology Message-ID: References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: kiuk0156.chembio.ntnu.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: tyfon.itea.ntnu.no 996497531 27322 129.241.83.82 (30 Jul 2001 12:52:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@itea.ntnu.no NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 12:52:11 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: slrn/0.9.7.1 (Linux) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10733 Date: 2001-07-30T12:52:11+00:00 List-Id: In article <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com>, Russ Paielli wrote: > Preben Randhol wrote: > > I'll bet nine out of 10 non-Ada-programmers would disagree with you. And > that's part of the reason that nine out of ten programmers (or whatever) > are non-Ada-programmers. So what. If they choose not to use Ada because one uses a more readable syntax, let them. They obviously haven't grasphed the idea of making good quality software and are only too happy hacking in C or Perl or whater. Let them. I think rather that this 90% are either ignorant of Ada or following the main stream towards the cliffs (read C++, Java etc...). > Because "=" is the simplest fricking symbol that could possibly be used If you think about it it is more important that your if statments are correct than your assignments. Just think about this C line: if (C = crap) then ... and of course it will always be true and will compile. I would rather have = for this than assignments. > for assignment. Why is this so hard for Ada programmers to understand? > What's so great about ":="? Why not use "$=" or "%="? Because of how colon is used in written language. You can read := as "set to equal" or only "set to". > What I am proposing would not make programs "less readable." It would > make them MORE readable, especially for new Ada programmers. If > long-time Ada programmers are unable to see that, I believe Ada will > become an obscure niche language, like HAL or Jovial. That would be a > terrible shame, because Ada has excellent fundamentals and could become > a dominant language. Sorry but you are barking up the wrong tree as I see it. Rather make good free programs in Ada and distribute them under GPL or similar with source to get more people aware of Ada. That would help Ada more than changing its syntax. -- �Don't use C; In my opinion, C is a library programming language not an app programming language.� - Owen Taylor (GTK+ developer) Use Ada 95, a free language. More info at http://www.adapower.com/