zed@mdbs.UUCP (Zed Smith) (03/14/90)
Back in the dark reaches, before the empire, there existed peace. Not a peace brought about by tyrannical rulers quelling every rebellion, but peace brought about through the power of the flame. This power was immense, respected by all. The flame did not attack the innocent or free, only those who were stupid and unable to comprehend. These glorious days could not last long. There were greater powers in the world that would someday attempt to eliminate the flame. They were known as dod. dod was not inherently evil (or so they legend goes), but it was hungry for money and did not respect the freedom of the believer to wear a tshirt or to grow long hair. (something like the ibm power) (Fortunately ibm and dod did not join forces.) There was a small band of programmers. (In the days of great insults they were referred to as a community, a title to which they promptly rebelled) This band of programmers supported freedom, apple pie and the ability to write thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands of lines of code at the slightest whim. This band of programmers was happy and their bosses were happy. In the dark ages of the empire, the wolf raised his call and said ada was the answer. ada solved all problems. What were these questions though? A major revolt ensued. comp.lang.c was engulfed. A few hardy souls had survived the last time the wolf raised the call of ada. In comp.lang.fortran it was difficult to find a worthy foe for the wolf due to their smallness of numbers. comp.lang.c has great numbers. Will the band of programmers survive? Will this great battle, like unto the war for the end of time, ever end? One cannot know the future, but the power of the flame is great. Unfortunately, so is the power of the counterflame, the power of misinformation and the power of personal insult. It is a difficult contest that must not be misconstrued to imply that ada, an inanimate object can be better than the c, another inanimate object. It is the animator, the wolf and the band of programmers that will fight this battle and c and ada will be unscathed. It is a sad day in Mudville. Zed Smith pur-ee!mdbs!zed
srg@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Steven R Gerber) (03/14/90)
FLAME ON !!! (Remember The FF) Ada get the F??? outta here. If the damn lang were half of what the DOD purports it to be, Star Wars (space weapons etc. not Lucas Mania) would be finished and perfect. See how well it works? **************************************************************** * Steven R. Gerber - PAL (Programmer At Large) * srg@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu * Tel: 212-794-8721 * UUCP: ...rutgers!columbia!cunixd!srg * FAX: 212-794-8721 ****************************************************************
schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) (03/15/90)
In article <1990Mar14.061135.25490@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> srg@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Steven R Gerber) writes: >FLAME ON !!! (Remember The FF) >Ada get the F??? outta here. If the damn lang were half of what the DOD >purports it to be, Star Wars (space weapons etc. not Lucas Mania) would >be finished and perfect. See how well it works? Steve - While I think that the "my computer language is better than your computer" wars are starting to be a bit too much, I also think your comment to be somewhat inappropriate, and certainly not conducive to productive discussions. The 'jury will be still out' for quite a while as to how well Ada works. My personal observations from three years in command and control systems planning work for Navy, is that is at least "half of what the DOD purports it to be" as you stated above, if not a great deal more so. Until a couple of years ago, most Navy tactical systems I was aware of were coded in assembler, FORTRAN, CMS-2 and BASIC. Ada may have even reached the "Fleet" in an operational system before C did. Both C and Ada have their uses, applications and places, and I expect both languages to be in use for a long time. As a programmer, I will choose Ada for certain programs and C for others (and I have programmed in both). Jeff Schweiger -- ******************************************************************************* Jeff Schweiger CompuServe: 74236,1645 Standard Disclaimer ARPAnet (Defense Data Network): schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil *******************************************************************************