Re: Survey shows Ada not popular???

Re: Survey shows Ada not popular???

[Donn Hines]

In article 4t2@world.std.com, srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) writes:
>    The May 1993 issue of Software Magazine, page 45, has an article on
>4GLs.  In the article is a table that has the survey results from a survey
>done by Sentry Market Research in which they asked corporate users which
>language they would use after reengineering or reverse engineering their
>existing systems.  Here are the results:
>
>			Cobol		37%
>			4GLs		20%
>			C++		16%
>			C		15%
>			Other		11%
>			Ada		 5%
>			Smalltalk	 3%
>			Basic		 2%
>			Fortran		 2%
>

This "survey" simply represents what people are comfortable with. If I have a s
ystem
that is doing the job I want it to, why would I want to go to the tremendous
expense and hassles involved in retraining my people and moving to a language I
know little or nothing about? Is it any suprise to anyone that in surveying 
businesses, Cobol and databases get the majority of votes? It's what they are
used to.

In my opinion, Greg makes some valid points in his postings. I don't agree with
everything, and this is one of them.

I only hope Ada doesn't go the way of the Beta format for VCRs. Beta was the
clear quality winner, yet VHS won. Uh-oh. Another thread? Or has this been hash
ed
before: Ada <-> Beta analogies. Hey! It even rhymes. Excuse me, I better go get
this copyrighted. ;-)

-donn hines

Re: Survey shows Ada not popular???

[news]

In article <1993May5.212434.13986@newshost.lanl.gov>, hines@paloverde.lanl.gov 
(Donn Hines) writes:
*
*In article 4t2@world.std.com, srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) writes
:
*>    The May 1993 issue of Software Magazine, page 45, has an article on
*>4GLs.  In the article is a table that has the survey results from a survey
*>done by Sentry Market Research in which they asked corporate users which
*>language they would use after reengineering or reverse engineering their
*>existing systems.  Here are the results:
*>
*>			Cobol		37%
*>			4GLs		20%
*>			C++		16%
*>			C		15%
*>			Other		11%
*>			Ada		 5%
*>			Smalltalk	 3%
*>			Basic		 2%
*>			Fortran		 2%

My choice would be, more or less:

OPAL for the 80% of applications involving databases
C/C++ along with something like Protogen for most other applications
Assembler in extreme circumstances.

A recent InfoWorld article mentioned the problems involved in retraining/
retreading Cobol "programmers"...  same goes double for "Ada programmers/
software engineers".

*
*This "survey" simply represents what people are comfortable with. If I have a 
system
*that is doing the job I want it to, why would I want to go to the tremendous
*expense and hassles involved in retraining my people and moving to a language 
I
*know little or nothing about? Is it any suprise to anyone that in surveying 
*businesses, Cobol and databases get the majority of votes? It's what they are
*used to.
*
*I only hope Ada doesn't go the way of the Beta format for VCRs. Beta was the
*clear quality winner, yet VHS won. Uh-oh. Another thread? Or has this been has
hed
*before: Ada <-> Beta analogies. Hey! It even rhymes. Excuse me, I better go ge
t
*this copyrighted. ;-)
*
Don't worry about Ada going the way of Betamax;  it's going the way of the
Edsel.



-- 
Ted Holden
HTE