Re: No call for it

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic.brenta@insalien.org>]

Marin,

You keep complaining that Ada lacks leverage, and you keep saying that Ada
should this and Ada should that.

I think Ada does already provide a lot of leverage.  From your posts, it
looks like you are not aware of the existence of:

* AWS for web-based applications and web services
* GNADE for database apps (includes an Embedded-SQL preprocessor)
* GtkAda for portable GUI's, CLAWS and GWindows for Win32 GUI's
* XML/Ada for XML processing
* OpenToken for lexical analysis
* Charles or AI302 for data structures and algorithms

In terms of development tools, I keep being impressed with ASIS and the
potential it has.  At work I use an ASIS-based tool that generates
code coverage information; I am learning how invaluable that tool is.
I know of no other language that provides this, especially not in a
_standard_ way.

You also say that students and hobbyists are not a good market to
target.  I disagree with this.  Ada ia already entrenched in a very
high-profile market - avionics, train control systems, nuclear
industry - which is small, but sustains several healthy companies
that provide development tools.  In fact this small market is big
enough to sustain comptetition between these vendors.

The problem is that the companies that make up this high-profile
market are quite secretive, and do not normally advertise that they
use Ada; they just do it with the understanding that Ada is a
competitive weapon in their arsenal.  This backlashes on them, as
they now find it difficult to hire Ada programmers, or people willing
to learn.

The only thing that Ada needs is visibility to the masses.  So, if
you really mean to help Ada rather than complain about the situation,
I suggest you go out and write free software in Ada.  You may join one
of the existing projects, e.g. the Unified Ada Library being discussed
in another thread; or you may use the libraries I mentioned for maximum
leverage in an application for end users.  If you feel that integration
is poor between these libraries, then go out and fix that.  If you think
that they are not portable enough, then port them.  Basically, whenever
you say "Ada should", replace it with "I will".

And all the while, put a sticker on your software saying "Engineered to
perfection with help from Ada", and let the world be in awe of you.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.

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