ADA/C Flame wars

[Lars P. Fischer]

In article <1990Mar26.184417.25844 at diku.dk> jensting at skinfaxe.diku.dk (Jens Tingleff) writes:
>... You try writing to a file, a screen, a piece of paper
>without any variable-alteration, and be sure to post an article
>about it ...

Too late, I'm afraid. The trick is called Lazy Evaluation. Check out
Miranda(TM), Haskell, and others. In fact, lazy lists are all you
need.

The point is that C is powerful, fast, and dangerous, while functional
languages are even more powerful, slow, and safe. Make your choice. Ada
pretends to be powerful, fast, and safe, but really is weak, slow,
and dangerous (1/2 :-).

The ideal would be to have a language that allowed for an easy way to
prove correctness, with the assistance of "proof checkers" and so on,
while still providing the speed and control of C. Alas, we don't have
that (yet).

/Lars
(In case you're interested in lazy evaluation, check out Turners
articles on Miranda and KRC).
--
Lars Fischer,  fischer at iesd.auc.dk   | The difference between genius and 
CS Dept., Univ. of Aalborg, DENMARK. | idiocy is that genius has its limits.