From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FORGED_GMAIL_RCVD, FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,df1a7f1c3c3bc77e X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!postnews.google.com!p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: ezkcdude Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: An Ada Advice Inquiry Date: 3 May 2007 19:23:22 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1178245402.584700.290730@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.143.46.80 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: posting.google.com 1178245402 22757 127.0.0.1 (4 May 2007 02:23:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 4 May 2007 02:23:22 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com; posting-host=66.143.46.80; posting-account=UbN39Q0AAADjt_3dTnzY1z4Qc9xnXw4K Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:15489 Date: 2007-05-03T19:23:22-07:00 List-Id: I'm thinking about using Ada, but it is very scary when you see very few projects in development. On May 3, 10:01 pm, wrote: > I recently received an inquiry from a colleague I have > not seen in many years. He is currently in a position > where he is asked to advise a client about whether to > choose Ada or C++ for a project. He is not a language > junkie because his expertise is a very different level of > software engineering, but he is a highly intelligent and > capable consulting engineer. > > Perhaps that's why he inquired of me. :-) > > One of the concerns is whether anyone else is choosing to > use Ada for new projects. He does not want to be the > only one to make such a choice. It is well-known that > there are a lot of Ada software products being maintained, > but is anyone choosing it for new projects? Good question, > I answer. > > So. What do I tell him? At one time, I could contact the > AJPO and ask this question. Although they were never > very good at providing complete information, they did have > some knowledge of where Ada was being used for new > projects. Now, there is no place to look for that information. > > It presents a little dilemma. If no one else is using Ada for > new projects, he can wonder why he should be the alone > in his decision. If every other consultant, manager, or > program director asks the same question, and gets no > information about others choosing Ada, no one will want > to make that choice. > > Is anyone choosing Ada for new projects? What kind of > projects? Can we collect information about them and > create a catalog of them in the adaic.com website? If > not, why not? > > The compiler publishers know who is buying their compilers, > but they don't want to compromise customer confidentiality. > The programmers are afraid of losing their jobs if they tell > anyone what they are doing. Everyone who can provide the > information is afraid to do so. When I was actively consulting > on Ada, I was often told, by my client, not to tell anyone they > were using Ada. So. We keep the secret. The secret keeps > Ada a secret. And Ada begins to wane because no one > wants to reveal their decision to use it. > > Is this a recipe for killing any incentive for choosing the language > for future projects? What do I tell my old friend? Should he > take the risk of using Ada even without the knowledge that anyone > else is using it for real projects? Hmmmmm. Is anyone out there > really choosing it for new software projects? > > Richard Riehle