what are some of the uses for ada?

what are some of the uses for ada?

[Robin]

Wondering, what are some of the uses for ada, what is it for, why is
it better than other languages.....this is.
-R

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

Robin wrote:
> Wondering, what are some of the uses for ada, what is it for, why is
> it better than other languages.....this is.

Ada is for SW you want to be correct. It's better for me because it is a 
language for SW engineers rather than for coders.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
Monty Python's Flying Circus
22

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[nobody]

Robin wrote:
> Wondering, what are some of the uses for ada, what is it for
I use it for programming

 >, why is it better than other languages
Because I know it better than most other languages

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[Gautier write-only]

Robin:
> Wondering, what are some of the uses for ada,
Here are some: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada-project-summary.html

> what is it for,
Anything - from very serious things, to things not serious at all!

> why is it better than other languages.....this is.
Is it ? Perhaps. For me it is the sum of many details which in total
make a big difference.
Generally, it is made to catch your errors the earliest possible. You
also notice potential errors more often. It begins with the fact that
you have:
      ...
      end if;
    end loop;
  end if;
  ...
and not brackets. You even don't write some classic "banana skins" in
the first place: steps in the "for" instruction are only 1 or -1. Ada
offers plenty of attributes which make life easier as well: you'll
write "for i in x'Range loop" rather than having to pass a 'n' integer
and putting the wrong upper bound on your loop. And so on...

Then, features are fairly orthogonal.
- you are not forced to use references and pointers if you don't need
them. If you want, you can make a full object-oriented GUI without any
dynamic allocation on GUI objects.
- the type system is not bound to the modularity (package /= class)
- you can make "a:= b" whatever the complexity of a (and b's) type
- you write "if a = b then..." to compare two integers, or two
matrices, or anything else as well: for instance, the whole contents
of a dialog box before and after user changes, to check if there is
any.
- you have expressions for every type

Then, the nesting is very powerful in Ada. It's definitely not a
"flat" language.
You can have a package inside a function you need it. Define a local
procedure inside a loop. And so on.
_________________________________________________________
Gautier's Ada programming -- http://sf.net/users/gdemont/
NB: For a direct answer, e-mail address on the following web site:
http://www.fechtenafz.ethz.ch/wm_email.htm

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[Nasser M. Abbasi]

On 6/8/2010 6:06 PM, Gautier write-only wrote:

> you'll
> write "for i in x'Range loop" rather than having to pass a 'n' integer
> and putting the wrong upper bound on your loop. And so on...
>

Along the same thought, I like that in Ada one can easily define an 
array to start from 0 instead from 1. Depending on the problem. This can 
make the coding much simpler. (less chance of making one-off error).

In other languages, arrays starts from either 1 or 0.

--Nasser

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

Nasser M. Abbasi wrote:
> 
> Along the same thought, I like that in Ada one can easily define an 
> array to start from 0 instead from 1. 

Or 23, or Blue, or whatever is meaningful for the problem.

The idea in Ada is to model the problem in the SW, not translate the problem 
into terms defined by the language.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
Monty Python's Flying Circus
22

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[(see below)]

On 09/06/2010 03:58, in article hun01g$emp$1@speranza.aioe.org, "Nasser M.
Abbasi" <nma@12000.org> wrote:

> On 6/8/2010 6:06 PM, Gautier write-only wrote:
> 
>> you'll
>> write "for i in x'Range loop" rather than having to pass a 'n' integer
>> and putting the wrong upper bound on your loop. And so on...
>> 
> 
> Along the same thought, I like that in Ada one can easily define an
> array to start from 0 instead from 1. Depending on the problem. This can
> make the coding much simpler. (less chance of making one-off error).
> 
> In other languages, arrays starts from either 1 or 0.

Only in *bad* languages.

-- 
Bill Findlay
<surname><forename> chez blueyonder.co.uk

Re: What are some of the uses for Ada?

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

Robin wrote:

> Wondering, what are some of the uses for ada, what is it for,

Mostly for programming. ;-)

> why is it better than other languages.....this is.

I seem to be more efficient at programming in Ada mainly because the
language

 - allows me better to express the problem I want to solve
 - catches mistakes earlier in the development process

But Ada is not always my first choice for solving a problem.  When I
solve system administration tasks, I often use Bash.

Greetings,

Jacob
-- 
"... and everybody hates the jews."

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[Ludovic Brenta]

Robin wrote on comp.lang.ada:
> Wondering, what are some of the uses for ada, what is it for, why is
> it better than other languages.....this is.

http://www.adaic.com/whyada/index.html

In a nutshell:

- you write fewer bugs.
- the few bugs you do write are easier to find.
- in your programs, you can say what you mean.
- Ada attracts better programmers.

--
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: What are some of the uses for Ada?

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:21:07 +0200, Jacob Sparre Andersen wrote:

> But Ada is not always my first choice for solving a problem.  When I
> solve system administration tasks, I often use Bash.

Huh, what about bash arrays. Aren't they just great? What about a variable
modified in the loop dealing with a pipe? Nice thing, lot of fun.
Processing double quotation marks in the bodies of strings. Just delicious!

If there were Ada interpreter for Linux I would never use bash. But even
without it, each time I write a script I must later admit, that it would be
better and *quicker* to use a full-blown Ada program instead.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

Re: What are some of the uses for Ada?

[Ludovic Brenta]

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote on comp.lang.ada:
> On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:21:07 +0200, Jacob Sparre Andersen wrote:
> > But Ada is not always my first choice for solving a problem.  When I
> > solve system administration tasks, I often use Bash.
>
> Huh, what about bash arrays. Aren't they just great? What about a variable
> modified in the loop dealing with a pipe? Nice thing, lot of fun.
> Processing double quotation marks in the bodies of strings. Just delicious!
>
> If there were Ada interpreter for Linux I would never use bash. But even
> without it, each time I write a script I must later admit, that it would be
> better and *quicker* to use a full-blown Ada program instead.

There exists such an interpreter, it is called BUSH (BUsiness SHell):

http://www.pegasoft.ca/bush.html

I've been toying with the idea of packaging it for Debian but never
got around to it, so I still use bash on the command line and dash for
scripts.  However, if I ever need something as sophisticated as an
array, I immediately switch to Ada.

--
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: What are some of the uses for Ada?

[J-P. Rosen]

Dmitry A. Kazakov a �crit :

> If there were Ada interpreter for Linux I would never use bash. But even
> without it, each time I write a script I must later admit, that it would be
> better and *quicker* to use a full-blown Ada program instead.
> 
Your dreams have come true, and for quite some time. Heard about BUSH?
http://www.pegasoft.ca/docs/bushintro.html

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------
           J-P. Rosen (rosen@adalog.fr)
Visit Adalog's web site at http://www.adalog.fr

Re: what are some of the uses for ada?

[Robin]

nobody wrote:
> Robin wrote:
> > Wondering, what are some of the uses for ada, what is it for
> I use it for programming
>
>  >, why is it better than other languages
> Because I know it better than most other languages

cheer up, don't be mean....

-r