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=1.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40,INVALID_DATE, LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uc!cs.umn.edu!msi-s0.msi.umn.edu!sctc.com!endrizzi From: endrizzi@sctc.com (Michael Endrizzi ) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: The Future of Ada Summary: Will Ada survive Keywords: ada Message-ID: <1990Aug15.151935.8848@sctc.com> Date: 15 Aug 90 15:19:35 GMT Distribution: comp.lang.ada Organization: Secure Computing Technology Corporation List-Id: I walked into my current job an Ada addict. The people I work with are all pretty much C/Unix hacks, so I thought I had the world at my beckon. I watched and laughed in horror as they passed untyped pointers, randomly recompiled modules because they "knew" which ones were out of date, used pointer arithmetic because C bit-fields did not align properly, etc, etc. Reality hit. I won't mention the name of the vendor in this column, but we purchased a moderately priced Unix Ada environment. Word had it that this package was "OK" but not great. No such luck. I am living in a nightmare of internal compiler errors and inconsistent data base errors. This is why the survival of Ada is at stake: 1)Control 2)Cost 3)Complexity 1)Control: Programmers and our associated egos like to be in control of our destinys. On paper, Ada is a powerful tool that automates many of the manual checks (recompilation, type checking) that other languages lack. By using this tool, we give up control. Big egos don't like to give up control. And when that tool doesn't work right, it's like being in a speeding car with not steering wheel driving in the mountains. C/Unix on the other hand is a hackers tool. If this don't work right...well we all know how easy it is to flip a few bits here and there to make it work. 2)Cost: Quality Ada environments are expensive and resource hogs. You can't just sit at home and hack into the night on your Mac/PC. You must have your $100,000 Rational with 200 Gigs of storage parked in your basement to get a true Ada high. I know on our system, I must balance elegance with "will the damn thing even compile, fit on our disks, crowd out other users, etc". C/Unix on the other hand is basically free. GCC is probably one of the highest quality C products and it is free. Unix comes standard on some systems. Compile times, storage requirements are reasonable in a multi-user environment. 3)Complexity: On paper Ada is addictive, elegant, true solution to multi-person life-cycle software engineering. In reality, I know of only 2 products that are usable: 1) Rational 2) DEC (there might be others, but these are the ones most talked about and I am familiar with). Ada merges several technologies --multi-user database, parallel processing, software engineering, compilers, user interfaces, etc. The only way to support the integration of these technologies is to have a platform that allows them to talk to one another. The platform must either be customized (Rational) or of high quality (DEC/VMS). Unix was/is/will always be a disaster This then goes back to the cost issue. Also, very few vendors are able to master these technologies. Either they are too small to afford it or the egos are so damn huge in the individual fields that they can't bring the team together to build a quality product. I am done rambling. I learned my lesson. Ada taught me many great concepts and but also the realities of life. au revoir Ada, :-( (sniffle,sniffle) Dreez ================================================================= ================================================================= Michael J. Endrizzi Secure Computing Technology Corp. 1210 W. County Road E #100 Arden Hills, Mn. 55112 endrizzi@sctc.com (612) 482-7425 *Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are not of my employer but of the American people. ================================================================= =================================================================