Re: Why is Ada succeeding in Europe?

[agate!howland.reston.ans.net!bogus.sura.net!darwin.sura.net!source.asset. com!bondp@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (C. Paul Bond)]

In article <1993Apr6.161921.22897@software.org> smithd@software.org (Doug Smith
) writes:
>Well, it seems fairly obvious that Ada continues to be accepted
>in European countries more quickly than in the U.S.  What is(are)
>the ROOT cause(s)?
>
>I'm fairly convinced there is no overwhelming technical argument
>(though you may give it a try).  And a few years in the real
>world has taught me that perception is more influential than
>reality :-)
>
>I'm willing to discuss this off-thread.  Just tell me whether
>I can use your comments in a summary.  Otherwise, suggest away--
>I'm all ears.

Some ideas:

1. Some of Ada's ancestry is based in CHILL, thus some of the basic
ideas for Ada have existed much longer in the European community.

2. The early popularity of languages like Algol, Simula, and other
related languages in Europe helped stimulate thinking about language
design possibilities.

3. Working in a multilingual environment may have sensitised people to
the how important language is to how we analyze and solve problems.
The result may have been the people were/are faster to realize the
short comings of their programming languages and thus quicker to look
for more expressive languages.

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