Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!uflorida!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!uw-june!pattis
From: pattis@june.cs.washington.edu (Richard Pattis)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Pascal dying out?
Summary: Cheap Ada on Micros
Message-ID: <6427@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 88 16:07:12 GMT
References: <17491@adm.BRL.MIL> <2365@ssc-vax.UUCP> <1082@cps3xx.UUCP>
Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 29

> For one thing, it's nearly impossible to put Ada on a micro.  Things
> like tasking, etc., just are *very* hard to do (I know of one
> implementation on a 386 machine w/16MB of memory, but that's it).
>   Extended Pascal is an attempt to add useful features to Pascal
> without making it too inefficient on small machines (or even big
> machines, for that matter).  At least, that's my understanding.
> (Personally, the only useful Ada systems I've worked with cost
> $50,000+ and need a VAX to run--I stick with Pascal for the rest!).
>   Just my thoughts....
> 
> 		Anton
> 

  Both Meridian and R&R sell validated Ada compilers that run on 640K PCs.
My performance on an 8 megaherz AT is approximately that of moderately
loaded VAX 8650 running DEC-Ada.  The costs are still high, $500-$1,000 but
I believe this will come down (I can remember back when one Modula-2 compiler
existed (Logitech) and it cost about this much too; now a wide range of M-2
compilers exist for 1/10th the price).  You can get a site-license for a much
cheaper cost/machine. If Ada compilers follow the same curve as M-2 compilers
I expect much cheaper ones in a few years.  They will probably never compile
as fast as Pascal, but the hope is that with Ada you will not need to compile
as much code as many times.

  We have begun teaching Ada in our introductory courses here a U. Washington
and things seem to be proceeding OK, if a bit slowly.  But the more complex
the language, the slower it is learned (with a big payoff during the second
quarter).  After all, it takes more time to learn Pascal than BASIC, but we
all think that it is worth it, when we must use the language to develop large
programs.