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,c406e0c4a6eb74ed X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,UTF8 Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!transit.news.xs4all.nl!195.241.76.212.MISMATCH!tiscali!transit1.news.tiscali.nl!dreader2.news.tiscali.nl!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: ADA Popularity Discussion Request References: <49dc98cf.0408110556.18ae7df@posting.google.com> <87smamsovb.fsf@insalien.org> From: Ludovic Brenta Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 22:13:45 +0200 Message-ID: <87d61pseti.fsf@insalien.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:oDl1iqD1awwd0mO3nwuRql/SAus= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Organization: Tiscali bv NNTP-Posting-Date: 17 Aug 2004 22:14:20 CEST NNTP-Posting-Host: 83.134.239.85 X-Trace: 1092773660 dreader2.news.tiscali.nl 62394 83.134.239.85:35372 X-Complaints-To: abuse@tiscali.nl Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:2789 Date: 2004-08-17T22:14:20+02:00 List-Id: (Keith H Duggar) writes: > Also, I mentioned pointers not because he had mentioned them but > rather because I was trying to think of "performance" related > features. As Marin mentioned, performance is not a good reason to use access types; the compiler chooses how to pass parameters (by value, by reference, or in registers), and you can trust it to make the best decision. The language rules also allow you to force by-reference parameter passing without using access types (e.g. with limited types). In object-oriented programming, you also do not need pointers to do dispatching of subprograms. Tagged types (the Ada equivalent of a C++ class) are always passed by reference, too, without any explicit pointers. You use access types primarily when you build dynamic data structures like linked lists. > Excellent on both accounts! I look forward to seeing what comes out > of the the new standard. And is this the GNAT compiler you are > referring to? Would that be a good choice me to get a first taste of > Ada? Yes, I was alluding to GNAT. And if you'll allow me another of my customary shameless plugs here, I'd suggest you try Debian [1] as your development platform. One of the problems people face when they try Ada is that they have to hunt the Internet to find compilers, libraries and documentation, and that they sometimes have to compile everything by hand. Debian solves that for you; with "apt-get" you can install about 1 million lines of code's worth of Ada software, all pre-compiled and configured for you. If you use Windows, my friend Stéphane Rivière has a similar distribution called AIDE [2,3] waiting for you. (end of shameless plug :) ) [1] http://www.debian.org [2] http://eig.unige.ch/lii/Aide.htm [3] http://stephane.rochebrune.org Oh BTW, are you aware of the main Ada portals? They'll get you to a wealth of documentation, software and info. [4] http://www.adaic.org [5] http://www.adapower.org [6] http://www.adaworld.com [7] http://libre.act-europe.fr -- Ludovic Brenta.