6 ms·

Ada is one of those languages that I always wish I had a reason to program in

grawprog 6y ago
It's always had a strange super elite, if you use ada you must mean serious business kind of vibe to it. I guess it's mostly the applications its used in, but the language itself has this strict rigidity to it. It's like the marines or special forces of programming languages or something.
- non-entity 6y ago
  Outside the unpopular syntax, I've wondered if the goverment / DoD association has scared people away.
ardit33 6y ago
It was my first language i learned in school... in Radford ( Virginia), before my university switched to Java. ADA was/is popular with defense contractors, so a lot of schools in VA teach it. It is very safe language, being both static typed, and strong typed. It was originally a procedural language, but later they added some OO to it. (to folks that don't know what a imperative language is, think of a language where all methods are like Java Static methods, and you store data in some global space). It can get a bit wordy to program with it, but I also like the lack of '{' bracket use everywhere that C like syntax has. With some modifications, ADA can be transformed into a great/fun language. Anyway, due to its small echosystem and adoption, I think it will remain a 'defense/aeronautic industry' only type of language. This is a simple program, and I think it is fairly elegant, but a bit wordy: with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO; with Ada.Integer_Text_IO; use Ada.Integer_Text_IO; procedure Check_Positive is N : Integer; begin Put ("Enter an integer value: "); -- Put a String Get (N); -- Read in an integer value if N > 0 then Put (N); -- Put an Integer Put_Line (" is a positive number"); end if; end Check_Positive;
- tlear 6y ago
  It looks similar to Pascal? I learned to program in Pascal as a kid always had a soft spot for it
  - linuxlizard 6y ago
    Pascal is one of Ada's parents, definitely. I did Pascal then transitioned to Ada quite easily in university.
- Lucretia9 6y ago
  People need to stop using "wordy" when they mean "readable."
  - nulldata 6y ago
    That's not necessarily the same thing though. Verbosity can obscure the information you're trying to gather from the code you're reading. A "can't see the forest for the trees"-kind deal.
    - johnisgood 6y ago
      I cannot see the source code for the documentation. This happens to me in so many cases. I work with a couple of codebases that have 90% documentation, 10% code. In Ada, code IS the documentation that also can be formally verified. It is wonderful.
      - NationalPark 6y ago
        I think I've heard "the code is self-documenting" a hundred times in my career and it hasn't been true once.
        Lucretia9 6y ago
        Yup, look at any driver in the Linux kernel.
synack 6y ago
If you need an excuse, the Make With Ada competition is ongoing. https://www.eejournal.com/industry_news/adacores-fifth-annual-make-with-ada-programming-competition-launching-july-31st/ https://www.eejournal.com/industry_news/adacores-fifth-annua...
non-entity 6y ago
Man there are so many of those languages for me. A lot of mainstream languages seem to mass-add features, but the two I'd like to see people look at are Ada's type system and Erlang-like native bitstring handling.
- johnisgood 6y ago
  And OTP!
bitwize 6y ago
Ada is basically boomer Rust. You don't need a specific reason to use it -- just jump in! My first Ada programs were crappy reimplementations of Unix utilities, just to see how the language felt when doing common tasks.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  During the late 90's there was an effort of redoing a Linux userspace in Ada, unfortunately the effort died out without much progress.

It's always had a strange super elite, if you use ada you must mean serious business kind of vibe to it. I guess it's mostly the applications its used in, but the language itself has this strict rigidity to it. It's like the marines or special forces of programming languages or something.

non-entity 6y ago
Outside the unpopular syntax, I've wondered if the goverment / DoD association has scared people away.

ardit33 6y ago

It was my first language i learned in school... in Radford ( Virginia), before my university switched to Java. ADA was/is popular with defense contractors, so a lot of schools in VA teach it. It is very safe language, being both static typed, and strong typed. It was originally a procedural language, but later they added some OO to it. (to folks that don't know what a imperative language is, think of a language where all methods are like Java Static methods, and you store data in some global space). It can get a bit wordy to program with it, but I also like the lack of '{' bracket use everywhere that C like syntax has. With some modifications, ADA can be transformed into a great/fun language. Anyway, due to its small echosystem and adoption, I think it will remain a 'defense/aeronautic industry' only type of language. This is a simple program, and I think it is fairly elegant, but a bit wordy: with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO; with Ada.Integer_Text_IO; use Ada.Integer_Text_IO; procedure Check_Positive is N : Integer; begin Put ("Enter an integer value: "); -- Put a String Get (N); -- Read in an integer value if N > 0 then Put (N); -- Put an Integer Put_Line (" is a positive number"); end if; end Check_Positive;

tlear 6y ago
It looks similar to Pascal? I learned to program in Pascal as a kid always had a soft spot for it
- linuxlizard 6y ago
  Pascal is one of Ada's parents, definitely. I did Pascal then transitioned to Ada quite easily in university.
Lucretia9 6y ago
People need to stop using "wordy" when they mean "readable."
- nulldata 6y ago
  That's not necessarily the same thing though. Verbosity can obscure the information you're trying to gather from the code you're reading. A "can't see the forest for the trees"-kind deal.
  - johnisgood 6y ago
    I cannot see the source code for the documentation. This happens to me in so many cases. I work with a couple of codebases that have 90% documentation, 10% code. In Ada, code IS the documentation that also can be formally verified. It is wonderful.
    - NationalPark 6y ago
      I think I've heard "the code is self-documenting" a hundred times in my career and it hasn't been true once.
      - Lucretia9 6y ago
        Yup, look at any driver in the Linux kernel.

synack 6y ago

If you need an excuse, the Make With Ada competition is ongoing. https://www.eejournal.com/industry_news/adacores-fifth-annual-make-with-ada-programming-competition-launching-july-31st/ https://www.eejournal.com/industry_news/adacores-fifth-annua...

non-entity 6y ago

Man there are so many of those languages for me. A lot of mainstream languages seem to mass-add features, but the two I'd like to see people look at are Ada's type system and Erlang-like native bitstring handling.

johnisgood 6y ago
And OTP!

bitwize 6y ago

Ada is basically boomer Rust. You don't need a specific reason to use it -- just jump in! My first Ada programs were crappy reimplementations of Unix utilities, just to see how the language felt when doing common tasks.

pjmlp 6y ago
During the late 90's there was an effort of redoing a Linux userspace in Ada, unfortunately the effort died out without much progress.