Re: How come Ada isn't more popular?

["kevin cline" <kevin.cline@gmail.com>]

artifact.one@googlemail.com wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I am a long time C programmer (10 years plus), having a look
> at Ada for the first time. From my (inadequate) testing, it seems
> that performance of average Ada code is on par with average
> C code, and there's a clear advantage in runtime safety. The
> GNU ada compiler makes pretty sure that there are very few
> platforms without easy access to Ada, so portability should be
> on at least an equal footing too.
>
> My question is: how come Ada isn't more popular?

1. Ada-83 simply sucked.  Expensive, inexpressive, with poor libraries
and no support for writing desktop applications.  Ada-83 was designed
for embedded development, and was OK for that purpose, but it was
hopeless for writing hosted applications.

2. For the same reason that Esperanto isn't more popular.  Ada was
designed by a committee to meet theroetical needs.  Most popular
languages have evolved to meet practical needs.  They grew from humble
beginnings to widespread acceptance.  Theoretically, they may be
abominations, but they get the job done.

3. For the same reason that Limburger cheese isn't more popular.  Most
programmers who have tried Ada didn't like it.  What makes a programmer
like a new language?  Usually, someone comes along and says something
like "Remember that program that we spent two weeks writing in C?
Here's a Perl implementation that I put together in three hours and
one-tenth the code."  That's never happened with Ada.



>
> This isn't intended to start a flame war, I'm genuinely interested.
> 
> thanks,
> MC