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""" The key new features included: Ada : The architecture would be programmed using the Ada programming language, which at the time was seen as the ‘next big

""" The key new features included: Ada : The architecture would be programmed using the Ada programming language, which at the time was seen as the ‘next big thing’ in languages. """ This was it - the next big thing. Missed and went down, but there's always the doubt if they were right too early ... Seems the performance just wasn't there: """ Gordon admitted that "to a significant extent," he was personally responsible. "It was a very aggressive shot at a new microprocessor, but we were so aggressive that the performance was way below par." """ It was kind of uncanny having it shouted from the rooftops one year, to dead silence about anything having ever happened a few years later.

markhahn 4y ago
Ada was the CISC of languages - high-concept the same way. And it lost to C, surely the RISC of languages. Never bet against low-tech.
- lproven 4y ago
  > Ada was the CISC of languages - high-concept the same way. For a long time, many years, in the "programming language benchmarks game", Ada regularly and consistently came 2nd only to C in raw compiled-code execution speed. There is a huge but mostly unrecognised amount of hearsay, rumour and scuttlebutt in the computing industry. People hear something, believe it, and make choices based upon it, without checking or looking for evidence... as they do with medicine and so on, or there would be no "supplementary, complementary and alternative medicine". It doesn't work. It is a SCAM. People heard "Ada is big" and thought "big means slow" and avoided it. It was quite big in the 1980s, from what I can tell, but that was about 4-5 chip and software generations ago. (H/w: Caches, scalar, superscalar, multicore, 64-bit.) (S/w: 16-bit, no memory protection; 32-bit, ditto; 32-bit with memory protection; ubiquitous hypervisors; virtualised 64-bit with memory protection.) Compared to C++, Ada is a tiny lean fast sportscar of a language. > Never bet against low-tech. It isn't low-tech. It was in 1972 or something. Never bet against "worse is better" is more like it.
  - igouy 4y ago
    fwiw https://web.archive.org/web/20150929064737/http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64q/which-programs-are-fastest.html https://web.archive.org/web/20150929064737/http://benchmarks... https://web.archive.org/web/20150104073800/http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64q/which-programs-are-fastest.html https://web.archive.org/web/20150104073800/http://benchmarks...
    - lproven 4y ago
      Not sure what you are trying to tell us here, TBH. Can you explain in words?
      - igouy 4y ago
        Data. You say "2nd only to C" but don't provide data. http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=all http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all...
        lproven 4y ago
        Aha, ISWYM now. I can't. I just remember noticing it a few years back, and being surprised, and then checking occasionally and it stayed there for a while. Why not contact them and ask, if you're curious? If I'm wrong, you'll have the pleasure of refuting me. ;-)
        igouy 4y ago
        > Compared to C++, Ada is a tiny lean fast sportscar of a language. We can all see C++ program measurements faster than Ada program measurements in those archived "programming language benchmarks game" charts.
        lproven 4y ago
        What I was getting at was the size of the language, not its compiled speed. Does any single human understand all of C++ and use it all? Is it even possible any more? If they did, could anyone else read the code?

markhahn 4y ago

Ada was the CISC of languages - high-concept the same way. And it lost to C, surely the RISC of languages. Never bet against low-tech.

lproven 4y ago
> Ada was the CISC of languages - high-concept the same way. For a long time, many years, in the "programming language benchmarks game", Ada regularly and consistently came 2nd only to C in raw compiled-code execution speed. There is a huge but mostly unrecognised amount of hearsay, rumour and scuttlebutt in the computing industry. People hear something, believe it, and make choices based upon it, without checking or looking for evidence... as they do with medicine and so on, or there would be no "supplementary, complementary and alternative medicine". It doesn't work. It is a SCAM. People heard "Ada is big" and thought "big means slow" and avoided it. It was quite big in the 1980s, from what I can tell, but that was about 4-5 chip and software generations ago. (H/w: Caches, scalar, superscalar, multicore, 64-bit.) (S/w: 16-bit, no memory protection; 32-bit, ditto; 32-bit with memory protection; ubiquitous hypervisors; virtualised 64-bit with memory protection.) Compared to C++, Ada is a tiny lean fast sportscar of a language. > Never bet against low-tech. It isn't low-tech. It was in 1972 or something. Never bet against "worse is better" is more like it.
- igouy 4y ago
  fwiw https://web.archive.org/web/20150929064737/http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64q/which-programs-are-fastest.html https://web.archive.org/web/20150929064737/http://benchmarks... https://web.archive.org/web/20150104073800/http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/u64q/which-programs-are-fastest.html https://web.archive.org/web/20150104073800/http://benchmarks...
  - lproven 4y ago
    Not sure what you are trying to tell us here, TBH. Can you explain in words?
    - igouy 4y ago
      Data. You say "2nd only to C" but don't provide data. http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=all http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all...
      - lproven 4y ago
        Aha, ISWYM now. I can't. I just remember noticing it a few years back, and being surprised, and then checking occasionally and it stayed there for a while. Why not contact them and ask, if you're curious? If I'm wrong, you'll have the pleasure of refuting me. ;-)
        igouy 4y ago
        > Compared to C++, Ada is a tiny lean fast sportscar of a language. We can all see C++ program measurements faster than Ada program measurements in those archived "programming language benchmarks game" charts.
        lproven 4y ago
        What I was getting at was the size of the language, not its compiled speed. Does any single human understand all of C++ and use it all? Is it even possible any more? If they did, could anyone else read the code?