hand@ncsu.UUCP (Steven Hand) (04/01/86)
---- In article <8000002@ztivax.UUCP> david@ztivax.UUCP writes: >I do not think Ada is significant nor a Good Thing for computer >science in general for the following reasons: > >1) A "common programming language" is not significant. It is not even >DESIRABLE. Do you think Ada is good for Avionics? [...] for database >access? [...] for defining report layout? [...] for interactive screens? >[...] for tabular computation? NO WAY. Ada was designed for "imbedded systems"; but on the way they made a good general-purpose language. >(remember, these things have to be RELIABLE) Reliable compared to what? I think Ada would be more reliable if it was smaller, but it is more reliable than assembly language or even C. >Besides, how long does it take YOU to become proficient in a language? >One week? Two weeks max? >[...] How then is this such a big deal? The best response is to quote Gary Ford & Richard Weiner in their book, "Modula-2: A Software Development Approach", (John Wiley) p.12 : When one properly learns Ada, one is really learning software engineering, as is the case with Modula-2. ...which, incidentally, I would like to see replace C in the small system world. >3) Do strongly typed languages REALLY help? Oh, come on now! Strong typing, with well-defined type conversion/coersion, is one of the best things for reliable, transportable programs. Just look at all the arguments going on in net.lang.C about what particular fragments of code mean. >4) Software engineering is in its infancy, and will continue to be >until something is REALLY discovered which reduces effort and bugs. GOOD POINT. But we should use the best we've got right now. >[...] force a standard (Ada) which is stone-age (because all >currently used software technology is stone-age). Should we stop writing software until a new, non-stone-age technique gets invented? If you know of a currently-existing "answer", let me know. >Aguments? The more the merrier; it keeps the net interesting. Regards, Steve Hand decvax!mcnc!ncsu!hand