Ada
:Ada:: n. A Pascal
-descended language that was at one time made
mandatory for Department of Defense software projects by the Pentagon.
Hackers are nearly unanimous in observing that, technically, it is
precisely what one might expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat;
designed by committee, crockish, difficult to use, and overall a
disastrous, multi-billion-dollar boondoggle (one common description was
"The PL/I of the 1980s"). Hackers find Ada's exception-handling and
inter-process communication features particularly hilarious. Ada
Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who became the world's first
programmer while cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his
mechanical computing engines in the mid-1800s) would almost certainly
blanch at the use to which her name has latterly been put; the kindest
thing that has been said about it is that there is probably a good small
language screaming to get out from inside its vast, elephantine
bulk.
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
Skip to a random entry
Back to Liz's page