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Ada is not just another programming language (1986)

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Re: Ada is not just another programming language (1986)

#61

Post by qPM9l3XJrF »

adrian_b wrote: post #28
qPM9l3XJrF wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Some of those features have been introduced only recently in more popular languages, while others are still missing from most languages. Can you give an example of an ADA feature missing from most languages? I know ADA is supposed to be good for writing reliable software, are there any important features related to that which other languages could adopt?

A feature that for a long time was missing from most languages, but which has been adopted by many during the last decade, is to accept separator characters in numbers, to improve the readability of long numerical constants. Ada introduced this in 1979, by allowing "_" in numbers. Cobol, in 1960, allowed hyphens in identifiers, for better readability. Because hyphens can be confused with minus, IBM PL/I, in 1964, rep…

Thanks, interesting! However I can't help but notice that the in/out/inout stuff wouldn't do much for a modern dynamic language like Python or Ruby... are there features of Ada that those languages could do well to adopt?

Re: Ada is not just another programming language (1986)

#63

Post by gigatexal »

Taniwha wrote: post #60
gigatexal wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wikipedia article has some good stuff here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)

I'm very aware of what Ada is like (I was doing my thesis on compiler design back when it was still mostly a creature of committees) - I was more criticising the article, not the language

Ahh ok

Re: Ada is not just another programming language (1986)

#65

Post by Jtsummers »

deathtrader666 wrote: post #64

Given that everybody has limited time to learn new programming languages, does HN recommend learning Rust or Ada?

The consensus is probably Rust and even as an Ada fan/admirer I’d recommend it if you only have time for one. But you probably have time for at least a basic intro to Ada, and Adacore has some good and quick(ish) introductions at https://learn.adacore.com.

Re: Ada is not just another programming language (1986)

#66

Post by CRConrad »

Jtsummers wrote: post #49
CRConrad wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But they do have more free or open source options than Ada does. Fortunately FSF GNAT is free and unencumbered (unlike AdaCore's release of GNAT GPL). Sorry, I don't quite get what you're trying to say here. You mean unencumbered by being free or open source?

GNAT GPL removes the runtime exception, so if you build something with it linked to its standard library, it's also supposed to be open sourced. This means you can't (in a legal/technical sense, not a true prohibitive sense) make closed source software with it. FSF GNAT doesn't remove that exception, so it can be used in releasing closed source software. That's the encumbrance that GNAT GPL imposes and FSF GNAT does…

Got it, thanks!

Re: Ada is not just another programming language (1986)

#67

Post by theodorethomas »

Jtsummers wrote: post #54
TuLithu wrote: post #53

I apologize for the long quote, but I promise that if you read to the end, you will see that the discussion is germaine. "I want to point out again the difference between writing a logical and a psychological language. Unfortunately, programmers, being logically oriented, and rarely humanly oriented, tend to write and extol logical languages. Perhaps the supreme example of this is APL. Logically APL is a great langua…

It's an interesting comment, and I just read that chapter. But I find it amusing that he's calling Ada (correct spelling, BTW, not ADA) non-humane in comparison to Fortran. Unless it's numerical code, Fortran is pretty non-humane. Computed goto anyone?

Fortran (name since 1990) has SELECT CASE to make Computed GO TO obsolete. Maybe you are thinking of FORTRAN?

Re: Ada is not just another programming language (1986)

#68

Post by Jtsummers »

theodorethomas wrote: post #67
Jtsummers wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an interesting comment, and I just read that chapter. But I find it amusing that he's calling Ada (correct spelling, BTW, not ADA) non-humane in comparison to Fortran. Unless it's numerical code, Fortran is pretty non-humane. Computed goto anyone?

Fortran (name since 1990) has SELECT CASE to make Computed GO TO obsolete. Maybe you are thinking of FORTRAN?

Sure, FORTRAN then. The language that Hamming was referencing.

Sadly, though, obsolete doesn't mean absent. I saw plenty of ostensibly professional code in the early 2010s that was developed using computed go to. It was "delightful" and totally humane code.

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