I am currently in the Military, and I am being moved into the computer programming department. I am going to have to learn either COBOL, or Ada. Those are the only programming languages that the Marine Corps uses. I am currently (slowly) learning C++. I was wondering, if some of you experts could give me your opinion on which language I should choose. Also which one of those two languages (if any) can be used in Game programming. I was leaning a little bit toward Ada since it''s object oriented, but am not completely sure. Any feedback will be appreciated. Thanks. Sgt. Darren Hill United States Marine Corps

Ada is used in some universities as an educational tool, a stepping stone to what many people consider a more useful language (e.g. C++ or Java). COBOL, on the other hand, although used by the military, isn''t the most impressive object in a game programmers'' bag of tricks.

I had NO idea that the military used close to worthless pl''s...

WHY?

=======================
Game project(s):
www.fiend.cjb.net

Any language can be used for game programming. Not all languages can be used for graphical games though.

>> I had NO idea that the military used close to worthless pl's... <<

Switching languages would mean that the US military would have to retrain all of their "old" programmers (the ones that don't know the new language that is). It would probably cause a _lot_ of problems And no language is worthless (well, maybe my own PentaScript ). If it gets the job done, it's good.

Edited by - Muzzafarath on August 2, 2000 5:19:43 PM

Ada really wouldn't be that bad for a game, even an OpenGL/DX
game. The two main things that make it slow are the constant
almost Nazi like bounds checking, and Garbage Collection. The
bounds checking does not add that much on a modern ooo processor
the compiler is smart enough to generate the typically predicted
branch. So all you normally lose is a pipeline stage,and a cache
slot. Of corse, every cycle counts, so this price may be
too much for you. Ada is often used on some farily weak processors
and in safty critical systems, so there are ways around it, but
still, it will be slower there. The GC also slows you down, but
no worse than Java, and you don't have nearly as many leaks.


That being said, I find that the longer I go NOT
programming Ada, the more I like it. Actually using the dreadfull
thing mostly consists of 10 minutes coding, and 40 minutes
begging Ada to compile.

Note also that Ada was invented by the DOD, so it's no suprise
that they used in the military. Currently they have largely
backed off on requireing Ada. The programmers who are good
enough to use Ada, are the ones who don't need it. The bad
programmers eventually figure out how to do bad things no matter
how hard the language makes it.


P.S. Go with COBOL if you want to get out on a repetitive stress
injury.

Edited by - Grib on August 2, 2000 6:57:06 PM

Edited by - Grib on August 2, 2000 9:50:51 PM

Ada is probably cooler.

COBOL is more used (even by the military) and gives you a route out of programming for the government. All types of businesses still use it.

Keep working on C++ either way.

Mike Roberts
aka milo
mlbobs@telocity.com

quote: Original post by milo

COBOL is more used (even by the military) and gives you a route out of programming for the government. All types of businesses still use it.

Well, not all types of businesses . Here''s a quote from Blizzard''s web site (in the employment section):

quote: From the Blizzard web site

Aside from talent, the first and foremost thing we are looking for in a programmer is experience. Unlike most other companies, our definition of experience is pretty broad. We don''t need to see three years of Cobol or nonsense like that.

NEVER NEVER NEVER USE COBOL!

COBOL IS EVIL!

COBOL SUCKS!

COBOL MAKE YOU CRAZY!

Every line in COBOL must start at the 8th column (otherwise it is seen as comments) and NEVER be more than 80 caracters long.

I''ve used COBOL 6 months and it was really a pain!

ADA isn''t as cool as C++, but it''s a very cool OOP language. Moreover, if you want to learn C++, ADA will help you a bit but COBOL has NOTHING TO SEE with any other language!

Learn ADA, forget COBOL.

Honestly, COBOL is just a piece of s**t!!!!!!!!!!

Believe me!

Just wondering, are there any free Ada or Cobol compilers out there? Are there any free tutorials to go with them ?

I''m intrigued by what people have posted here on this thread and I''d like to see the syntax of these 2 languages for myself Or is that a bad idea as it will poison my mind and make me go totally stupid....

The only reason Cobol became so popular of late was the Y2K bug

All these systems that had been built in the 80s (I think probably about that time) needed to be fixed, and they were all written in Cobol

The need for cobol will probably diminish. here''s hoping

Sam

Sam
Space Cadet''s DJ Random, Thinker, and Geek at heart.