Ada

[crm at duke.UUCP]

Hear, Hear!! for the Ada article from M. Banahan!

For the last couple of years I have been talking about how much better
life will be when the Revolooshun comes and we can get a decent Ada compiler.
Rather to my surprize, there are even some that have been validated now --
something I feared was far into the future.

Consider some of the advantages:

-- explicit typing allowing the programmer to be sure that his high-order
   bits aren't being tromped on ... with an escape to allow you to do
   wierd stuff if you must (the "unsafe programming" package/type/proc,
   whatever it is).

-- an explicit mechanism allowing the programmer to get access to data
   within a structure BY NAME or thru a reference, without worrying
   about what else becomes visible thereby.

-- The ability to define new data types AND THE OPERATIONS THEREON, while
   maintaining the general form and syntax of the language.

-- Explicit compiler directives defined as part of the standard.

-- Protective measures like array bounds-checking which can be disconnected,
   so they are available for debugging, but removable for production code
   (if your application is that time-dependant and/or you are that foolish.)

There are lots more, but I've got to do some work today.

Now, if I could just figure out why the ASSERT statement went away...

Charlie Martin
...!duke!crm