Re: An observation of Ada (may offend)

[kevq@banana.demon.co.uk (Kevin F. Quinn)]

In article <3kkdfo$763@felix.seas.gwu.edu>,
          mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) wrote:

> [...]
> In my experience, Europeans seem more resigned to the idea that
> government is involved in their businesses and their lives; I
> observe that they tend to deride government, _per se_, much less 
> than we do. 
> 
> I've often thought that part of the resistance in the U.S. to Ada,
> because of its DoD connections, has less to do with political
> correctness ("I won't touch anything the bomb-builders use") than
> with traditional American disdain for government, and especially the
> Feds ("If the government did it, it couldn't possibly be any good.").
> 
> How do European readers of CLA react to this? 

Fairly well, I guess.  Certainly in the current climate in the UK,
as far as possible everything is farmed out to the private sector.
We have a situation where if something needs doing, the gov. will
do their level best to make sure they do (and spend!) as little
as possible.

I don't know about the US, but in Europe, and especially in the UK,
Ada is booming.  There is far more Ada work about than there are
people to do it.  If I walked out of my current job I would be able to
walk straight into another one by the end of the week, no problem. 
Much as I might like to think that's 'coz I'm very good, it's actually
'coz there's tons and tons of work out there.

> I persist in my foggy-headed notion that market share is not the only
> measure of success. Ada is succeeding in the areas in which it was
> designed to succeed.

Well, some of them :)  I haven't seen much code re-use for example...
Although I think that is due to the relative agd of Ada - since it
tends to be used in "big" projects; i.e. ones that run for several
years, there hasn't been a lot of chance to build up suitable libraries.
And in 'big' projects the re-use tends to be much higher up, at the
requirements level.  In my experience, anyway.

However packaging is used with a vengeance.  Us grunts know a good
thing when we see it :)

> Sure, I'd love it if all the PC developers were
> using Ada, but that is an unrealistic expectation (at last for now),
> and is, in an important way, irrelevant.

Of course, most PC software is still developed in the old
hack-and-slash method.  You won't see them using Ada.  They'll use
C++, but only because they can write C with it :->

One of Ada's main strengths as I see it is the inherent legibility
of code written in Ada.  More than half of the projects I've worked
on in the last few years have been able to avoid generating any
"design" documentation as such; the Ada practically IS the design.
Luckily it's a compilable design :-)  The cost savings are very
significant, obviously.

Anyway, I drift somewhat from the thread...

-- 
Kevin F. Quinn           * "That's not what you said when you sent him your
kevq@banana.demon.co.uk  * Navel."   "Novel, Baldrick, not navel."
kevq@cix.compulink.co.uk * "Well it sounds like a case of soggy grapefruits
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