From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,c23311c4d57b937e X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail From: Christopher Browne Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Embedded Keynote Speaker Mentions Ada Date: 17 Sep 2004 23:58:43 GMT Organization: cbbrowne Computing Inc Message-ID: <2r1c1jF14e352U1@uni-berlin.de> References: X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de nmEltX1sA4mpPPiTcy+I/ACXVj+y7tF2YDPhLkeKI8ZwPtmSOn X-Draft-From: ("nntp+wolfe:comp.lang.ada" 12480) X-message-flag: Outlook is rather hackable, isn't it? X-Home-Page: http://www.cbbrowne.com/info/ X-Affero: http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=cbbrowne Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3814 Date: 2004-09-17T23:58:43+00:00 List-Id: In the last exciting episode, Jim Gurtner wrote: > Is this an Ada put down? > > Dan Saks said in a keynote speech at Embedded Systems Conference in > Boston on Tuesday (Sept. 14): > > "In embedded programming, learning a less-popular language like Ada or > Eiffel is critical not so much because it is a marketable skill but > because it helps programmers see what is possible with more mainstream > languages like C, C++ or Java." This is much the same as when Eric Raymond (the guy that wrote the essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar") wrote: "Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot." - Eric Raymond, "How to Become a Hacker" Understanding the additional abstractions is useful whether you use them directly or not because they allow you to perceive additional ways of viewing the way computers do things. - Knowing enough about APL to know that there's some merit to having vector functions or to having a "reduce" abstraction will lead to building more powerful systems - Understanding relational algebra leads to looking at data access in a more declarative/applicative manner, rather than just the "network model" (which is where OO tends to point people) - Knowing Ada exception handling will lead to looking for ways to apply it, even if only partially, in other languages. - Likewise, understanding rendezvous may help in designing applications, whether you get to use it or not. - The disciplines of _describing_ strong typing of parameters, as in Eiffel's "Design by Contract," are useful whether enforced by the langage or not. -- (reverse (concatenate 'string "gro.mca" "@" "enworbbc")) http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbbrowne/nonrdbms.html Rules of the Evil Overlord #133. "If I find my beautiful consort with access to my fortress has been associating with the hero, I'll have her executed. It's regrettable, but new consorts are easier to get than new fortresses and maybe the next one will pay attention at the orientation meeting."