Structure Comparison (ADA vs C)

[Tim Maroney]

Mike Banahan has pointed out that Ada solves many of the problems of C, and
heaps derision and ridicule on those of us who continue to use the sadly
outmoded language C.  Spoken like a true theoretician, Mike!  I agree
entirely that Ada is in many ways superior to C for algorithm description
and similar tasks, which you cited.  However, if you are one of us poor
schmoes who is trying to write programs that will actually do something and
help people in a concrete fashion, there is one way that C outshines Ada
completely, and that is that production-quality verified complete compilers
for C exist, and C support tools have been in development for many years.
On the popular operating system that is making it possible for you to read
this news group, C is the friendliest language.

On the other hand, I wish I weren't forced to use C in so many applications,
such as yacc and lex.  (Yes, I know, such programs often allow you to use
fortran or ratfor instead, but that's like a choice between defenestration
and castration.)

Tim Maroney