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-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,7ee10ec601726fbf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-08 12:39:17 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!hammer.uoregon.edu!skates!not-for-mail From: Stephen Leake Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: is Ada dying? Date: 08 Oct 2001 15:22:15 -0400 Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Message-ID: References: <3BC0F75B.51D32B3@adaworks.com> <9pr8gu0tnf@drn.newsguy.com> <3BC1305D.1C6910C@worldnet.att.net> <9prfvm01cqt@drn.newsguy.com> <3BC1C7E3.46046096@worldnet.att.net> <9psm790ojt@drn.newsguy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: anarres.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: skates.gsfc.nasa.gov 1002569042 26165 128.183.220.71 (8 Oct 2001 19:24:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: dscoggin@cne-odin.gsfc.nasa.gov NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 Oct 2001 19:24:02 GMT User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:13961 Date: 2001-10-08T19:24:02+00:00 List-Id: Robert*@ writes: > In article <3BC1C7E3.46046096@worldnet.att.net>, James says... > > > > > > >The javadoc tool is very useful. It localizes the documentation of > >the standard Java classes. The same can be said for the Ada RM. > > > > Not the same. I generate javadocs for all my java classes as part of > the build process. There is no javadoc like tool for Ada. period. Yes, there is. It is called 'gnathtml', and it comes with GNAT. For an example of its output, see http://users.erols.com/leakstan/Stephe/Ada/Windex_Packages/index.htm Now you know ... And yes, it does not do _exactly_ the same thing javadoc does. That's because Ada is inherently more readable than java, partly because of the separation of specs and bodies. > In Ada, if you want to find what is the API of a package, you have > to open the spec and read it. No one in Java does this, they simply > read the HTML auto generated docs. Much better presented, easier to > follow, etc... Well, I can open the Ada spec in the same editor that I'm writing my application in. Moving my hand _all_ the way over to the mouse, and clicking thru directories to find the .html I need; that's _hard_! Seriously, _my_ definition of a well written Ada spec is that it is easy to read. An automated tool doesn't write good comments for you. I much prefer reading Ada in Emacs to reading the html output of either gnathtml or javadoc. > > > You are still not getting the point. "official" Standards do not mean > anything. > > VB has no official standard, VC++ for years did things the way MS wanted, > Java has no "official" standard, DELPHI has no "official" standard, and > I do not think perl has an "official" standard, etc... Ada had both an > ansi and iso standard since 95. Now if having an official stamp of a > standard is important, you would think Ada will be the most widley used > language becuase of this stamp. Popularity is _not_ the point of a standard. Having an ISO Ada standard, and a maintained conformance suite, means that I can find an Ada compiler for my wizzy new workstation, and recompile my code from 10 years ago, with no compile-time or run-time errors, or run-time behavior changes. That you cannot do with Borland, Sun or Microsoft tools. The 10 year requirement is not reasonable in all projects; for projects that need it, it is overwhelming, and Ada is a good choice. -- -- Stephe