On Tue, 22 Sep 1998, David J Adams wrote:
> It's a matter of "horses for courses": its advanced features make Ada a
> fine language for writing a telephone exchange in, but not for scientific
> or engineering work.
>
> Who wants to work with a language which doesn't even provide a square
> root? (Or has the turkey I briefly had to support in the late 80's got
> itself proper support for floating-point arithemtic?)
Indeed. And even then its safety features aren't proof against human
ingenuity or stupidity.
In case anyone had forgotten, it was use, or misuse, of the Ada exception
handling mechanism which was one of the most significant factors in
the crash of the first Ariane-5 rocket.
--
Clive Page, Internet: [log in to unmask]
Dept of Physics & Astronomy,
University of Leicester, Phone +44 116 252 3551
Leicester, LE1 7RH, U.K. Fax +44 116 252 3311
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