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From: Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: How to get Ada to ?cross the chasm??
Date: Wed, 02 May 2018 15:01:54 -0700
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Date: 2018-05-02T15:01:54-07:00
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"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:
> No, you learn to avoid references -- they're rarely needed.  And
> everything is better off without them.

The first sentence is true, the second is dubious.  Automobiles are
rarely needed either, you can usually get where you're going some other
way, but is everything better off without them?

> People who can't design without them are the problem - not Ada's (or
> any other language, for that matter) memory management.

I don't see where people who can't design without them even come into
the picture.  Someone who can program with gc but not without it is like
someone who can drive a car but can't ride a bike.  The bike can go
places that the car cannot, so the person's possible destinations are
limited (although in 2018 that's less important than you might think).

But if the person can use both bikes and cars, why would they want to go
everywhere by bike, if the car can get them to a given destination
faster?  If it's for recreation or exercise or something, then fine; but
if it's to just get to the destination efficiently, then it's silly.