Richard Riehle wrote:
>...
>Saturdays) in Ada, one of my more argumentive students approached
>me with his view of Ada.  He said, "I think I am beginning to see
>the point. With C I can get a clean compile on my program immediately,
>but it takes me a long time to get it to run.  With Ada it takes a long
>time to get a clean compile, but once it compiles there is less work
>required to make it run."
>
>This seems to be true of the C family of languages, including C++. Those
>members of your team who are fustrated with the effort in getting a clean
>compilation are stuck with the same short-sighted view that is the bane of
>American industry.
>

This is exactly my point. One problem I have always had with my own
code is running off the end of arrays. This usually caused the progam
to blow up somewhere else. I used to get into endless change, compile,
run, crash - damn - where is that bug? loops. Now, with Ada, I can squash
that bug early. And many more besides...

This is why I question a 20-80 split on write-debug. I used to see close
to a 10-90 split in my own code, now I see closer to a 80-20 split.
I am not an expert programmer by any means. That is why I am asked for your
experiences. Do 'pro' progammers see a similar payoff?

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Daniel McDonough                                 HQ AFOTEC/SAN
(505)846-2837                                    8500 Gibson Blvd SE
Mathemagician Extraordinaire                     Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5558
Member Team Ada                                  [log in to unmask]
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