Its ADA not Ada after all

Its ADA not Ada after all

[Alex Blakemore]

I criticized one of our excellent admin people for using ADA instead of Ada,
and received the following reply.

> According to the Webster NewWorld Dictionary of Computer Terms, 1988
> edition, ADA is **very** acceptable.

Well, either we're all wrong - and so is the Ada LRM.
or Webster's needs a revision.

-- 
Alex Blakemore       alex@cs.umd.edu        NeXT mail accepted
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Without an engaged and motivated human being at the keyboard,
the computer is just another dumb box."      William Raspberry

Re: Its ADA not Ada after all

[David Emery]

Remember, "Ada" is a proper name, while FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC are
acronyms.  (What does that make "C"?)
				dave

Re: Its ADA not Ada after all

[Robert Kitzberger]

emery@goldfinger.mitre.org (David Emery) writes:

>Remember, "Ada" is a proper name, while FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC are
>acronyms.  (What does that make "C"?)
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Of course, it's a self-referential acronym...

	.Bob.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Kitzberger                          Internet:   rlk@rational.com
Rational, Grass Valley, CA              CompuServe: 70743,1550
type Opinion is private; 

Re: Its ADA not Ada after all

[Eric H Seale]

alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore) writes:
>> According to the Webster NewWorld Dictionary of Computer Terms, 1988
>> edition, ADA is **very** acceptable.
>Well, either we're all wrong - and so is the Ada LRM.
>or Webster's needs a revision.

I vote for option B -- "ADA" would be swell if it were an acronym, but
it ain't.  "Ada" is a real-live (if somewhat uncommon) human name, and
ought (IMHO) to be spelled like one.

Eric (not ERIC) Seale
seale@pogo.den.mmc.com

Re: Its ADA not Ada after all

[Art Duncan]

In article <EMERY.93Apr29091552@goldfinger.mitre.org>, emery@goldfinger.mitre.o
rg (David Emery) writes:
|> Remember, "Ada" is a proper name, while FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC are
|> acronyms.  (What does that make "C"?)
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The successor of "B".

|> 				dave

	- Art

Re: Its ADA not Ada after all

[David Moore]

In article 8Js@crdnns.crd.ge.com, duncan@sunup.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Art Duncan
) writes:
>In article <EMERY.93Apr29091552@goldfinger.mitre.org>, emery@goldfinger.mitre.
org (David Emery) writes:
>|> Remember, "Ada" is a proper name, while FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC are
>|> acronyms.  (What does that make "C"?)
>               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>The successor of "B".
>
Which ought to have been followed by P but was actually followed by C++.

The sequence, of course, is BCPL - Basic Cambridge Programming Language.

Re: Its ADA not Ada after all

[Andrew Dunstan,,2285592,]

>From article <C69GJ6.8Js@crdnns.crd.ge.com>, by duncan@sunup.NoSubdomain.NoDom
ain (Art Duncan):
> |> Remember, "Ada" is a proper name, while FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC are
> |> acronyms.  (What does that make "C"?)
>                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> The successor of "B".
> 

Or, as we say in Ada:

	Language'succ('B')

:-)

keep smiling
#  Andrew Dunstan                   #   There's nothing good or bad   #
#  net:                             #                                 #
#    adunstan@steptoe.adl.csa.oz.au #   but thinking makes it so.     #
#  or: andrewd@cs.adelaide.edu.au   #                                 #

Re: Its ADA not Ada after all

[Bjarne Stroustrup]

 > In article 8Js@crdnns.crd.ge.com, duncan@sunup.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Art Dun
can) writes:
 > >In article <EMERY.93Apr29091552@goldfinger.mitre.org>, emery@goldfinger.mit
re.org (David Emery) writes:
 > >|> Remember, "Ada" is a proper name, while FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC are
 > >|> acronyms.  (What does that make "C"?)
 > >               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 > >The successor of "B".
 > >
 > Which ought to have been followed by P but was actually followed by C++.
 > 
 > The sequence, of course, is BCPL - Basic Cambridge Programming Language.

BCPL is Basic CPL where CPL has had several interpretations over the years.
C==Cambridge is one but after CPL became a joint project with Imperial
College London C==Combined was a more polite interpretation. Real old-times
point to C==Christopher (Stratchy) as the most reasonable interpretation.