[Info-vax] Ada, was: Re: Some questions on software for VMS 7.3 VAX

[lists at openmailbox.org]

On Fri, 1 Jan 2016 14:07:13 -0000 (UTC)
Simon Clubley via Info-vax <info-vax at rbnsn.com> wrote:

> On 2016-01-01, lists at openmailbox.org <lists at openmailbox.org> wrote:
> > On 31 Dec 2015 15:22:33 -0500
> > Bob Koehler via Info-vax <info-vax at rbnsn.com> wrote:
> >
> >> In article <n63sc5$poj$1 at panix2.panix.com>, kludge at panix.com (Scott
> >> Dorsey) writes:
> >> >  <lists at openmailbox.org> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>It is. As I said it's 83, and quite a good one, but I'm looking for
> >> >>Ada 95.
> >> > 
> >> > Doesn't Ada 83 already have every language feature that it's
> >> > possible to add?  What more can they put on?
> >> 
> >>    All the mistakes in C++?
> >
> > I haven't looked at 2005 and later but the early versions were very
> > careful not to do that. I think Simon could speak more to that issue
> > from what I've seen of his posts. There's a lot of discussion on C/C++
> > problems in comp.lang.ada and how they are non starters in Ada.
> >
> 
> $ set response/mode=good_natured
> 
> Simon learned a long time ago not to get involved in language debates
> unless he has some very specific criticisms which impact his work. :-)

Sorry, I didn't mean to try to rope you in here. And it was possibly a
mistake because there is another Simon who works a lot in Ada who posts
quite a lot and I may have mixed both of you together. Sorry about that if
so.

> However, the Ada language maintainers do listen to well formed ideas from
> people not at the core of the community and consider them on their merits;
> I know because I currently have a proposal being considered by the Ada
> standards committee (to do with partial aggregates) for the next version
> of Ada.

I read some very interesting things about how Ada was designed and there is
at least one fascinating page online somewhere called "Ada Language
Competition" that has archived documents and stories about what it was like
to be involved in that from one of the tech writers who worked on one of
the candidates. I get the sense from reading it that a lot more design went
into Ada than some other languages.

> I have absolutely no idea if the proposal will eventually be accepted in
> some form, but in quite a few communities any such proposal would probably
> not even have got as far as it has unless you were part of the inner
> circle. At the same time, you do have to hope however that a language
> standards committee isn't going to pass something which turns the language
> into something it isn't and actually damages the core of the language.

From my limited knowledge of standards bodies I do agree with that and
think Ada is one of the best designed languages. Good luck with your
proposal!

> So yes, while I am not going to get into a C++ versus Ada debate, I do
> want to say that the online Ada community comes across as generally
> friendly. To anyone interested in Ada, you can also write code using a
> small core subset of the Ada language without having to learn the whole
> thing in case the size of the Ada LRM comes across as daunting. :-)

And to that point it seems to me Ada 95 is a good subset!

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