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Subject:
From:
"W. Wesley Groleau x4923" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
W. Wesley Groleau x4923
Date:
Mon, 9 Nov 1998 13:03:49 -0500
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> At least half of "C Traps and Pitfalls" is describing problems that
> Ada automatically avoids or locates for you.  .....

I gave up on the book a third of the way through.  Up to that point, ALL
of the entries were problems that were almost impossible to have in Ada.
A possible exception was a 2-3 pages discussing the subtle differences
between various long sequences of asterisks and
parentheses--incomprehensible at reading speeds higher than twenty words
per minute!

> "Writing Solid Code" ... subtitle is "Microsoft's Techniques for
> Developing Bug-Free C Programs."  ... Microsoft ... is
> the "600-pound gorilla" in your field, and [their] customers have very
> few options, even if you deliver buggy, inaccurate software.

Or at least their customers THINK they have no options.  It's obvious
that Microsoft has either no desire to write bug-free programs or no
clue how.

> - Ada's strongly defined math model should allow you to design your
>   system so you can port to multiple platforms easily.  C has always
>   given access directly to the hardware model, whatever that happens
>   to be.  (I don't know if the ANSI C standard enforces a single
>   model of math.)

My C books emphasize the fact that the size and range of anything other
than "char" is not portable.  A prospective employer once gave me a test
on C.  By the time I got to a question on how to write code to work around
certain portability problems, I had figured out I didn't want to work for
these <politically incorrect epithet about mental abilities> so I just
answered (correctly), "That's easy.  Write it in Ada."

(Just dawned on me--maybe they weren't looking for someone to hire, just
someone gullible enough to solve their problems disguised as a test.)

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