ADA Vs. Java
Picking the best programming language for an application can be difficult because there are so many good ones to choose from. Each language has its strengths and weaknesses. Ada and Java are two general purpose languages created to meet the needs of a specific market. Ada was intended to be a programming language for military applications, while Java began its life controlling television sets. Both languages have since evolved into tools that can be used to create a wide variety applications.
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Ada History
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The Ada programming language began as a attempt by the United States Department of Defense to replace the thousands of computer languages it used to create mission critical software with just one. The broad design goals for Ada were generality, reliability, maintainability efficiency, simplicity, implementability, machine independence, and a complete and unambiguously language definition. Ada became an ANSI- - American National Standards Institute -- standard in 1983. The current Ada ANSI standard is Ada95.
Ada Features
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Ada code resembles Pascal, but it was designed to create large, complex applications that must be maintainable and reliable rather than teach programming. Ada's features include object-oriented programming, encapsulation of data into packages that can be compiled as separate units, run-time error exceptions, generic procedures that don't require specific data types, and parallel and concurrent thread processing.
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Java History
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Java began in 1990 as a Sun Microsystems project to create a language to control consumer devices such as as cable boxes and remotes. The language -- then called Oak -- was to be platform independent, reliable and compact. After the original market failed to materialize, Oak was renamed Java and positioned as application language for the Internet. Java is now used to power cellphones, business middleware and transaction processing software and desktop applications. Java was released as open source software licensed under the GPL or Gnu Public License. In 2010, Sun and Java were purchased by the database company Oracle.
Java Features
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Java is platform independent. Applications written in Java will run on any system or device with a Java Virtual Machine installed. Java supports object-oriented programming and has built-in exception handling routines. Java is a strongly typed: all variables must be declared. Java does not use a code preprocessor such as C or C++ nor does it support memory pointers. Java threads work on single and multi-processor systems. It also has built-in support for networking. Java code is compiled to a bytecode, which is interpreted by the Java Virtual Machine or JVM.
Language Differences
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While many Ada language features have a corresponding feature in Java, there are some differences in the language. Ada was designed for real-time applications. Standard Java can not produce real-time applications because of interference the garbage collector. Java uses the symbols " &, |, ^, !" for boolean operations while Ada uses "and, or, xor, not." Ada allows operator overloading, but Java does not. Java uses braces to mark off code blocks while Ada uses "begin" and "end" like Pascal. Ada variables are declared before the "begin" statement, while Java variables can be declared outside or inside the braces.
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