Re: Ada and C++: A request for comparison/contrast/relative benefits

[cis.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!csc.ti.com!tilde.csc .ti.com!mksol!mccall@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (fred j mccall 575-3539)]

In <2465ea$gjg@truffula.fp.trw.com> erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin) write
s:

>I agree with Mike Feldman on the appropriate applications for Ada. The
>thought of man-rated application (such as air traffic control) programed
>in C gives me the cold shudders. 

Well, stand prepared to shudder, then.  First, what do you think
everything was written in before there was Ada, Sanskrit?  Secondly,
an ATC facility may have its software written in Ada, but it's talking
over a phone network whose switching software was written in C/C++.

Why are there so many Ada proponents who can't 'defend' their language
except by bashing others?  That approach seems to reflect more on Ada
than it does on the languages that most of the (mis)statements get
made about.

How often do you hear a proponent of C++ justify his choice of
language purely on the basis of how disgusting some other language is?
This is a 'disease' that appears to be pretty much a product of the
Ada world.  *I* don't think Ada is so bad that this is the only
'defense' that can be made of it, and it's not even my favorite
language.  Why so many who choose Ada first who can't find anything
better to say about Ada than that C is bad?

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.