Re: In praise of Ada Freeware

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

In article <zs297.12260$Kd7.7645921@news1.rdc1.sfba.home.com>, tmoran@acm.org writes:
>>I believe the third method (known for years as Freeware) may have
>>particular appeal to some Ada zealots, particularly if they have some
>>...
>>If instead they decide to transliterate Ada Freeware into some other
>>language (and the Ada Freeware is well written), they get a example
>   Back in the days of BBSes, BIX, and Compuserve, many of us posted
> programs, including source, without restrictions.  Of all my postings,
> just once did someone transliterate from the Ada to C and not reference
> the original.  A little e-mail urging and he added the reference back to
> the original Ada version.  Perhaps others have many horror stories, but
> I've never heard them.  Gee, maybe Windows XP has at its core a
> transliteration of one of my Ada postings ... but I doubt it.  ;)

In the case of Freeware perhaps the best reason for transliteration
would be to serve those who do not have a compiler for language X.
That need would seem to have gone away with the current trend to
offer a free version of many Ada compilers.

If some are determined to transliterate, it might be a good
experience for those non-Ada people to struggle with the issue
of "how can I do that in C ?".