Re: ADA Popularity Discussion Request

[kevin.cline@gmail.com (Kevin Cline)]

Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@acm.org> wrote in message news:<mailman.50.1094504533.31213.comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org>...
> kevin.cline@gmail.com (Kevin Cline) writes:
> 
> > Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen) wrote in message news:<vpblkhspuA9F@eisner.encompasserve.org>...
> > > In article <iWG_c.8033$w%6.3982@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>, "Richard  Riehle" <adaworks@earthlink.net> writes:
> > > 
> > > > No one argues that testing is unimportant.
>  
> > > > No language can protect us, at compile time, from every possible
> > > > error.
> > > 
> > > But assuming perfect testing, finding the errors during compilation
> > > rather than in testing saves me time, and time is money.
> > 
> > I thought so too, until I tried incremental test-first development. 
> > Retesting a unit after adding a few lines of code means that type
> > mismatches are caught immediately with or without strong typing.  But
> > it goes faster if you don't have to compile and link every iteration.
> 
> Hmm. I practice "test first" and incremental code/test. But I don't
> write tests that duplicate what the compiler is already testing; that
> would certainly be a waste of my time!
> 
> It takes me much longer to write and test code in C than in Ada. 

No surprise.  C is a much lower-level language than Ada.  Have you
ever tried C++?

> I
> suppose Haskell or something might be even better, but I'm waiting for
> an ISO standard language that I can buy support for.

I don't think there's as much value in ISO standards as there once
was.  When there were two dozen CPU families in use, and compiler
writing was an arcane and expensive art, ISO standards helped keep
developers and users from getting locked in to one particular hardware
vendor.  Today, with open-source compilers and languages, de facto
standard languages like Perl are just as good.

If you want control, then I would think you would be better off with
an open-source language and compiler, like C++/gcc or Ada/gnat or
Perl.  I would rather have something I can fix myself or hire someone
to fix than be at the mercy of a monopoly supplier.