Re: Ada vs. Posix -- the battle continues

[mjl@cs.rit.edu]

In article <7053@hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu writes:
>> In particular, the
>> ordinary systems which most people will be seeing in front of them for the
>> next 5 - 15 years, UNIX systems and PCs, will not run Ada accepteably.
>
>
>   A prime example is Unix; the current POSIX effort aims to 
>   standardize 1960's technology, thus resulting in a "lowest
>   common denominator" which locks users into obsolescence.

Actually, both Unix and Ada are products of the 1970's.  The difference
is that Unix, being primarily of commercial interest, has been able to
evolve, whereas Ada, a government sponsored thing-a-ma-bob, has
stagnated.  It's a shrine to the ideas of 1975, both good and bad.  The
fact that Unix has evolved in ways incompatible with Ada says as at
least as much about Ada as it does about Unix.

I followed the development of Ada from its inception as Strawman, and
became increasingly more depressed as the work proceeded.  The good
concepts Ada embodies are overwhelmed by its complexity (see Hoare's
excellent discussion of this in his Turing Lecture -- all of his
comments still apply).

Ada is the PL/I of the 70's, unusable until the mid-80's; is it destined
to be the choke-collar of DoD software development in the 90's?

Mike Lutz
Mike Lutz	Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY
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