Selecting A Programming Language Your Project: David Naiditch
Selecting A Programming Language Your Project: David Naiditch
Selecting A Programming Language Your Project: David Naiditch
David Naiditch
Raytheon Systems Company
Full support for Yes Yes Yes Yes No To usc lava, object-oricntcd programmiiig
procedural-based must be fully embraced.
soltwarc engineering
resentment,” and that Ada was fully capable of standing on checks.) Java, however, usually runs considerably slower
its engineering merits. because it makes cxtensive use of dynamic (heap allocated)
In fact, Ada is very unlikely to go away in the data structures and has automatic garbage collection, and
foreseeable future. The DoD has a tremendous invcstment because the gcnerated bytecode is typically interpreted.
in Ada. Over 50 million lines of Ada code have been (The last problem can be mitigated if a “just-in-time” [JIT]
developed €or warfighting systems. Many of thcse systems compilcr, or better yet, a native Java compiler, is
will be used well into the next millennium. Furthermore, available.) Of course, efficiency can significantly vary from
Ada will continue to be chosen for its reliability and lower one implementation of a language to another.
development/maintenancecost, both of which arc so Furthermore, different compilers are optimizcd for
important for large, long-lived software systems (see different language features.
Misconception 11).
MISCONCEPTION 3:
MISCONCEPTION 2: VERY TERSE SOURCE CODE RESULTS IN VERY
C IS THE MOST EFFICIENT LANGUAGE EFFICIENT OBJECT CODE
SINCE IT IS CLOSER TO ASSEMBLY CODE
C is not necessarily the most efficient language. The only guarantee is that very terse codc results in
When runtime checks are turned off, Ada code may run unreadable and, therefore, unmaintainable code. Do not
about as fast as C . (Standard C does not perform runtime assume, for example, that this C code