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: 103376,3a1c64628a09855b X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!peer-uk.news.demon.net!kibo.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!not-for-mail From: John McCabe Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Lack of formal syntax undermines Ada Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:34:09 +0100 Message-ID: References: <2os304dte7bu52t4ql3avpba946birp2r1@4ax.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: assen.demon.co.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 1208115264 10982 80.176.146.77 (13 Apr 2008 19:34:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:34:24 +0000 (UTC) X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 2.0/32.652 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:20912 Date: 2008-04-13T20:34:09+01:00 List-Id: "(see below)" wrote: >> What, me and you? Weird! It's been a long time since I was on here >> regularly though, so easily forgotten :-) > >6a1db28/e32a7e7bad2ebf54?lnk=st&q=#e32a7e7bad2ebf54> Oh dear - only 5 and a bit years :-) >>> Did you use cards on the ICL 2976 for your labs? >> >> No. We used a VAX. .... >Was that in a room with 16 terminals in Lilybank Gardens, >using the "HOCUS" system on a VAX 11/750? HOCUS sounds familiar, and it could have been in Lilybank Gardens, but I can't remember off-hand. I think it was quite a small room in an older building. It definitely wasn't anything like the Boyd Orr or Rankine Buildings, and I don't remember it having been the main building so.... >> As a matter of interest, have I >> already asked you if you could remember who we might have been taught >> by? It was an old, miserable guy who wore tweed a lot as far as I can >> remember. >I can think of one or two candidates (neither being me!). >Was he tall and gaunt; or shorter, moustached, and a heavy smoker? Probably shorter, but I don't remember him having a moustache. Whoever he was, he didn't like people throwing paper aeroplanes around :-) There's a vague chance his name was something like Watt. >Our most recent effort: >53204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208095483&sr=1-1> >was re-set by the publisher, using our .doc files, in their "house style", >and they managed to make it less legible, in my opinion, than our originals. >Ho hum. > >At least it contains a fair account of Ada, showing its advantages, >especially for concurrency, over the other languages covered. >This despite opposition from the publisher and anonymous reviewers. >It seems that complete ignorance of Ada is no bar to pontificating about it.