Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: ada-c++ productivity Message-ID: Date: 21 Mar 91 03:20:42 GMT References: <1991Mar10.151220.2581@forwiss.uni-passau.de> <11966@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <1991Mar15.224626.27077@aero.org> <12159@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> Sender: news@Rational.COM Distribution: usa Lines: 19 >The software for the Space Station >is being written in Ada because of >government mandate, not necessarily because Ada is the best language for >the job. People always get hung up on the mandate thing, but it is instructive to consider WHY there is a mandate in the FIRST place. The reason?: because the DoD determined that the tower of Babel of languages they were suffering with (which included just oodles of C and FORTRAN) was not doing the job. Ada is precisely the best language for the job because all others were found--through empirical testing--to be woefully inadequate. In short, C and FORTRAN and COBOL and LISP and Smalltalk-80 and all the others had their chance, and blew it. -- ***** DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own. Duh. Like you'd ever be able to find a company (or, for that matter, very many people) with opinions like mine. -- "When I want your opinion, I'll read it in your entrails."