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From: rick@tetrauk.UUCP (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Re: C++ and a waitress called Ada
Message-ID: <1179@tetrauk.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jun 91 10:55:11 GMT
References: <1991Jun6.004107.25123@netcom.COM> <2325@media03.UUCP> <1991May24.015856.9979@csusac.csus.edu> <4034@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> <1991May25.073216.15040@netcom.COM> <948@trotsky.mrcu> <285@devnull.mpd.tandem.com> <1991Jun6.225355.18611@netcom.COM>
Reply-To: rick@tetrauk.UUCP (Rick Jones)
Organization: Tetra Ltd., Maidenhead, UK
Lines: 39

In article <1991Jun6.225355.18611@netcom.COM> jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter) writes:
>>> Note that this in no way indicates a change to my bedrock conviction that
>>> Ada is the superior technical choice between the two languages for
>>>engineering large complex systems.
>>> -- 
>
> [ a very well stated rationale of what makes a good programming language ]

Well said Jim!  The concepts behind a language, the culture it embodies, and
what it _helps_ you to do is far more important than what it is possible to do
if you try hard enough - regardless of how many other people are trying equally
hard.

If you want to take the engineering concepts of Ada, together with its syntax
style, and evolve a fully object oriented language based around classes with
multiple inheritance, dynamic binding, genericity, etc, what do you get?

Answer - Eiffel.

OK, it's not been around as long as Ada, but there is a new, complete,
definition of the language soon to be published in book form, and an
independent consortium "NICE" which holds the rights to that definition.
NICE has the responsibility to validate Eiffel compilers, and will soon be
taking steps to set up that process - watch this space.

Eiffel needs some more time to fully mature, but as Jim pointed out, C++ needs
a lot more time than many people seem to imagine;  not just with the language
but with everything which surrounds it.

Perhaps the real choice should be between Ada and Eiffel - and I don't imply
that I believe Eiffel is always preferable.  In many cases Ada will still be
the better choice, but Eiffel offers the same approach within a "pure"
object-oriented context.  C++ is not the only option.

-- 
Rick Jones, Tetra Ltd.  Maidenhead, Berks, UK		rick@tetrauk.uucp
Chairman, NICE (Non-profit International Consortium for Eiffel)

Any fool can provide a solution - the problem is to understand the problem