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,ee1a8b8db84c88f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!news.glorb.com!news-feed01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net!nntp.frontiernet.net!newscon06.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!newsfeed-00.mathworks.com!nntp.TheWorld.com!not-for-mail From: Robert A Duff Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada exception block does NOT work? Date: 20 Aug 2005 11:28:27 -0400 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Message-ID: References: <4301ab29$0$6989$9b4e6d93@newsread2.arcor-online.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: shell01.theworld.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: pcls4.std.com 1124551708 9297 192.74.137.71 (20 Aug 2005 15:28:28 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@TheWorld.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 15:28:28 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:4215 Date: 2005-08-20T11:28:27-04:00 List-Id: "Jeffrey R. Carter" writes: > Robert A Duff wrote: > > > It is unfortunate that different programming languages use different > > terminology for what is essentially the same concept. "Raise" and > > "handle" mean essentially the same thing as "throw" and "catch". > > There are important differences in syntax and semantics among different > > languages, but terminology differences just get in the way of > > understanding the "real" differences. And the differences between C++ > > and Java are just as important as the differences between C++ and Ada, > > even though C++ and Java use more-similar terminology. > > The point is that Ada was there first, so Ada terminology must be the > "Right" terminology. Ada was certainly not the first language with exceptions. Does anybody know which one was? And were they called "exceptions" and were they "raised" and "handled"? I believe Symbolics Lisp predates Ada. True? And I believe it had exceptions, which were called "conditions". (Symbolics Lisp was the predecessor of Common Lisp.) Anyway, terminology of programming language concepts is such a mess that it's hard to say what the "right" terminology is. Too bad. Besides, there's an element of "pot calling kettle black" here. Ada misuses quite a few terms. For example, pointers should be called "pointers" or "references", not "accesses". And it's an abomination to use the term "integer" for a meager subset of the integers. I believe the term "integer" to refer to the infinite set predates Ada somewhat. ;-) - Bob