Re: Why is Ada succeeding in Europe?

[cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!wupos t!cs.utexas.edu!csc.ti.com!tilde.csc.ti.com!mksol!mccall@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU ( fred j mccall 575-3539)]

In <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.

I suspect this is primarily due to the larger acceptance of Algol in
Europe.  Over here (in the States), Algol never made it that big and
Pascal was the 'big' popular language until C came along.  I don't
think you can credit it to 'wider use of langauges in Europe or any
such thing.  Look for whatever the reason was for the acceptance of
Algol in Europe while it didn't gain much usage here; I suspect the
same factor is operating with regard to Ada.

[It can't be just the 'more languages taught' /  'new languages more
easily accepted in Europe' bit that Europeans would like to tout,
because if that were the case, C, C++, and Pascal would never have
become popular over here.]

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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