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One thing I liked about Ada is that the authors of the language also wrote why they choose things the way they are, what was rejected, etc... Their is a documen
by guerby 6y ago
One thing I liked about Ada is that the authors of the language also wrote why they choose things the way they are, what was rejected, etc... Their is a document about this called "The Ada Rationale" available on the web:
http://www.ada-auth.org/standards/rationale12.html http://www.ada-auth.org/standards/rationale12.html
I did contribute the HTML version of the Ada 1995 Rationale (first language revision) back in the day:
https://www.adaic.org/resources/add_content/standards/95rat/rat95html/rat95-contents.html https://www.adaic.org/resources/add_content/standards/95rat/...
- pjmlp 6y agoIt actually quite common in ISO processes, there are similar documents for C and C++ language revisions.
- dwheeler 6y agoYes, but many ISO documents are not publicly available (they're paywalled instead, even though ISO doesn't pay the authors). The Ada rationale is publicly available, so anyone can see exactly why various decisions are made. That's useful for someone using Ada (obviously), but it's also useful for people designing any other programming language... you can often learn about a craft by learning about why people made various decisions.
- pjmlp 6y agoHere is the one for C99, http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/C99RationaleV5.10.pdf http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/C99RationaleV5.10...
- _kst_ 6y agoThere are published rationales for C90 and C99, but not for C11. (Actually the original rationale is for ANSI C89, which differs from ISO C90 mostly in the way the sections are numbered.) C89: https://www.lysator.liu.se/c/rat/title.html https://www.lysator.liu.se/c/rat/title.html C99: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/C99RationaleV5.10.pdf http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/C99RationaleV5.10...
- pjmlp 6y agoSure, and it is great the decision that ISO Ada took, I was just pointing that there were others available. I bet most people around here aren't aware of those ones for C.
- cxr 6y agodwheeler's Steelman bibliography is also useful: https://dwheeler.com/steelman/ https://dwheeler.com/steelman/