Re: Can Ada by popularized faster ?

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <3451A98F.B3DFF971@sd.aonix.com>, Dave Wood <dpw@sd.aonix.com> writes:
> William A Whitaker wrote:
>> 
>> Somewhere on this thread someone suggested that Ada needed a "killer
>> application" and that an operating system would be a case in point (like
>> C -> UNIX).
> 
> This seems easy to counter-argue.  Here are a couple
> of examples:

> 3. VMS was written in (I think) BLISS.  VAX/VMS was
> quite dominant for a time.  Who the hell has ever
> heard of or cared about BLISS on any significant
> level?

VMS was about 50 % in VAX Macro assembler language (good for
what it does but hardly useful on another system) with the
rest in Bliss.  There are a few further lessons, though --
initially DEC would not sell a Bliss compiler to customers
with support at all -- you got one unsupported and "free"
with your $25,000 purchase of a source code license for VMS.
If you wrote some software of your own and it did not compile,
tough.

Subsequently DEC had a fairly uniform price for all their
compilers, and they offered Bliss at twice that price !!!

A couple of years ago DEC decided to withdraw the product
and now Bliss is available for VAX VMS and Alpha VMS on the
Freeware Disc.

Much as I hate to admit it, Dave, this does point out the
need for wise Product Management :-)

> Ada will never be C because, well, Ada is not C.  
> It shares C's power and utility, but not its
> essential bithead/ hacker characteristics.  On
> the other hand, Ada's essential characteristics
> can provide a competitive edge to the brave and
> wise minority who choose to use it.
> 
> I don't think that's such a bad thing.  

I don't think it would be a bad idea if careful design
capabilities were a majority interest. But meanwhile
please spread your own product to Windows NT Alpha :-)

> -- Dave Wood
> -- Product Manager, ObjectAda for Windows

Larry Kilgallen