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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp-feed.chiark.greenend.org.uk!ewrotcd!newsfeed.xs3.de!io.xs3.de!news.jacob-sparre.dk!franka.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!.POSTED.109.57.200.81.mobile.3.dk!not-for-mail From: Jacob Sparre Andersen Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to get Ada to ?cross the chasm?? Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2018 20:21:13 +0200 Organization: JSA Research & Innovation Message-ID: <87a7tlvppi.fsf@jacob-sparre.dk> References: <1c73f159-eae4-4ae7-a348-03964b007197@googlegroups.com> <87k1su7nag.fsf@nightsong.com> <87po2la2qt.fsf@nightsong.com> <87in8buttb.fsf@jacob-sparre.dk> <87wowqpowu.fsf@nightsong.com> <87efiyuh10.fsf@jacob-sparre.dk> <87vacanebz.fsf@nightsong.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: franka.jacob-sparre.dk; posting-host="109.57.200.81.mobile.3.dk:109.57.200.81"; logging-data="19006"; mail-complaints-to="news@jacob-sparre.dk" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:u41HBVB8r6eoZvyzWqju5dk3l9U= Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:51803 Date: 2018-04-29T20:21:13+02:00 List-Id: Paul Rubin wrote: > Jacob Sparre Andersen writes: >> Because you then would have to maintain that HLL in a backward >> compatible form for 30+ years. > > Do you expect people will be using that code in 30 years? Not for sure. But it has already been in operation for 30 years. > Why not use arbitrary precision integers and get correct results > without worrying? Among other reasons because a fixed-length bar-code can't handle it. Because a 28 m tall warehouse doesn't get 10 m taller just because you accidentally add 11 to 27 somewhere in your application. Etc. > Languages themselves have advanced a huge amount since that era, Have they? Well. We got OOP in an ISO standard for the first time in January 1995, but what other major advances in the state of the art have we seen in since 1988? > Even Java wasn't invented til the 1990s, and Perl was from 1987. What new did Java bring to the world of programming languages? > People back then wrote stuff in C that they'd undoubtedly use a HLL > for today. C hasn't gotten harder, but HLL's are so much easier that > using C would be silly. What is your definition of a HLL? Except that it apparently isn't C or Ada? Is it any language you can't write an operating system in? Or? >> The Ada part is there to ensure separation, and to check that the >> results from the R and Python calculations make sense > > Sure, that's fine, but it sounds like a fairly thin wrapper. Then I gave the wrong impression. Checking that the results make sense is a different operation than calculating the results, but that doesn't make it trivial. Greetings, Jacob -- »If you're going to have crime, it might as well be organized crime.« -- Lord Vetinari