Re: Ichibah flames, and flames out over, Ada 9X

[widget!jgg@uunet.uu.net (John Goodsen)]

koehnema@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Harry Koehnemann)

>In article <1993Feb17.065421.12021@sei.cmu.edu> wellerd@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (Davi
d Weller) writes:
>>Speaking of tagged types,
>>it was my impression that this was Mr. Ichbiah's most sour grape.
>>He was rather insistent on creating a class-based language, rather
>>than the tagged types that we have now.  Although I agreed with him
>>on quite a few points, Tucker's counterpoints were far more
>>compelling.  
>
>Now that's interesting, if it is indeed true.  Technical merits are
>not the sole consideration for any design.  WHile the package/type
>extension approach may have advantages over a class based approach,
>it also has disadvantages - perhaps the largest being understanding
>by developers.  Class based langauges are common, their usage well
>understood (well, as understood as things get in CS), and most
>importantly, are currently embrassed by OO developers.  Type
>extensions (tagged types), while by no means a new concept, are not
>seen in the popular OO langauges.
>
>I think it will be interesting to see how the OO community that Ada
>seeks to crack will embrace extensions as a construct for inheritance.
>Particularly considering their past acceptance of the construct.  I
>also think the Ada community has a big sell ahead of itself.  Not that
>it can't be done, but "technical merit" does not directly lead to
>"popular" or "used" (ask FORTRAN and COBOL - and unfortunately Ada83).
>

How true.  A technological feasible solution in no way gaurantees
a success.  There is a concept of "perceived" need versus "actual"
need.  You don't market to "actual" needs, but to "perceived" needs.
The perception in the OO community is that the class is the natural
structuring concept.  The Ada 9X approach to classes, while technically
feasible is going to have a tough sell into NEW markets, because it
lacks the perception necessary to be embraced by a mainstream of
OO developers.  In particular, the concept of a "class" as a basic
object oriented structuring mechanism.  This same argument also
applies to the lack of direct support for multiple inheritance in Ada9X.  
While there have been proposals on how to perform MI using generics
or method delagation (which are still debatable), the perception 
of multiple inheritance as a core component of the language is not
there and will also hinder the marketing of Ada into NEW markets ...
While those of us who already know and like Ada are excited about
9X features, these 2 lacking perceptual needs (Class level packaging
and Multiple Inheritance) will negatively impact the growth potential
of this powerful language.

Before the flame war on this starts again, execute the following:


 If Flamer Has_Not_Read(DRAGOON) then
    Redirect_Flames ( to => "/dev/null" );
 end if;

--
John Goodsen
Software Process & Environments
EVB Software Engineering
jgg@evb.com



-- 
John Goodsen
Software Process & Environments
EVB Software Engineering
jgg@evb.com