<![CDATA[An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged.]]>An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged.

https://www.iqiipi.com/the-quiet-colossus.html

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/19059d40-2679-4f6c-a45c-6980be10c80f/an-essay-on-why-the-ada-programming-language-was-ahead-of-its-time-and-why-its-influence-is-largely-unacknowledged.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 05:30:27 GMTFri, 17 Apr 2026 07:31:44 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:33:59 GMT]]>@mdhughes @amoroso Honestly, I think that's a terrible article. Anyone who doesn't already understand how intertwined Ada is with the Wirth languages would come away no wiser

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://functional.cafe/users/tfb/statuses/116419122900112237https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://functional.cafe/users/tfb/statuses/116419122900112237Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:33:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:00:56 GMT]]>@monospace You have a point 😀 I tagged it that way mostly for the historical context of the essay.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/amoroso/statuses/116418992985370398https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/amoroso/statuses/116418992985370398Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:00:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:59:52 GMT]]>@amoroso Ada is not retrocomputing! 😆

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://floss.social/users/monospace/statuses/116418988745586989https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://floss.social/users/monospace/statuses/116418988745586989Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:59:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:52:57 GMT]]>@mhd @amoroso Oh, yeah, all the early language designs were catty academic politics at best, but the whole "working out module/class/simulation" thing was extra back-stabby.

Committees, it turns out, are a bad idea.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://appdot.net/users/mdhughes/statuses/116418961547018523https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://appdot.net/users/mdhughes/statuses/116418961547018523Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:52:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:48:55 GMT]]>@amoroso @mdhughes In general, the Algol family had some Game of Thrones like drama (and even more incest).

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tilde.zone/users/mhd/statuses/116418945711236038https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tilde.zone/users/mhd/statuses/116418945711236038Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:48:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:48:30 GMT]]>@amoroso @mdhughes Xerox' Mesa would also be an interesting point of view, as it was both an ancestor of Modula and a competitor of what became Ada.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tilde.zone/users/mhd/statuses/116418944089924243https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tilde.zone/users/mhd/statuses/116418944089924243Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:48:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:46:13 GMT]]>@mdhughes In the essay it's remarkable the absence of Modula-2, the early work on which predated or was contemporary of Ada's.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/amoroso/statuses/116418935085966837https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/amoroso/statuses/116418935085966837Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:46:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to An essay on why the Ada programming language was ahead of its time and why its influence is largely unacknowledged. on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:41:34 GMT]]>@amoroso That is a bizarrely long essay to not mention Algol at all.

Java, Scheme, Smalltalk, C++, Objective-C all learned a LOT from Algol60/68 (the useful parts from 60, idealistic things that don't work from 68).

Hoping that your compiler will protect you from other packages, in a binary run by the programmer, is obviousy folly. Packages are tinsel locks for politeness.

Pascal & Modula-2 came out of Algol60, & Ada's the weird government contract version of that conversation.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://appdot.net/users/mdhughes/statuses/116418916813415625https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://appdot.net/users/mdhughes/statuses/116418916813415625Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:41:34 GMT