From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,a0be06fbc0dd71f1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!dotsrc.org!filter.dotsrc.org!news.dotsrc.org!not-for-mail Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:16:44 +0100 From: Rico Secada Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: The future of Ada is at risk Message-Id: <20071229201644.580accc8.coolzone@it.dk> References: <20071229040639.f753f982.coolzone@it.dk> X-Newsreader: Sylpheed version 2.3.0beta5 (GTK+ 2.8.20; i486-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: SunSITE.dk - Supporting Open source NNTP-Posting-Host: 85.233.228.239 X-Trace: news.sunsite.dk DXC=P3D`ASJcd1hb>:U6jKdTQlYSB=nbEKnkkCA74;^LPKQc81``0@1]3QhWEX\AJTm9maZ@l;09NeVZn:9O1FECTlmoJFgEZbPhJ[j X-Complaints-To: staff@sunsite.dk Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19068 Date: 2007-12-29T20:16:44+01:00 List-Id: On Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:24:54 GMT anon@anon.org (anon) wrote: > > In <20071229040639.f753f982.coolzone@it.dk>, Rico Secada > writes: > >I have been doing a lot of research about the usage of Ada, both in > >industry and in the Open Source community. I am possible writing a > >paper on the issue and needs some constructive criticism. > > > >I have reached the following conclusions: > > > >1. Many companies are moving away from Ada towards C/C++. Many has > >already moved during the past 10 years. > > > 1. Most companies left in 1998 when the DOD killed the "Ada Law". > > > > >2. Very few projects exists on Sourceforge and Freshmeat compared to > >other languages like C++, Java, Python and others. > > > >Only 92 projects on Sourceforge.net and 57 on Freshmeat.net. > > > 2. Most Ada projects are not for open source community and will > never be archive at any open source archiving site, such > as sourceforge, etc. > > > >3. This is the biggest problem: Ada lacks free support on all > >platforms. The GNU GNAT Compiler is the only Open Source compiler, > >and it lacks proper support and implementation on a variety of > >platforms. > > > > > > 3. In this answer you need to spend more time doing research. > Free support is always limited! And Adacore's GNAT is only Ada > that is implementation on most platforms and the number is > growing every day. Not sure what you mean by proper support but > if your talking about vendor (Adacore) support. You can pay for > it just like other languages. You may hate the price but it > does exist. > > > > >The different GNU/Linux implementations of GNAT and the different BSD > >implementations seems to miss different aspects making it impossible > >to port larger projects without having to buy a proprietary compiler. > > > >My study shows, from searching around different mailing list archives > >on GNU/Linux and BSD, that people are very attracted towards Ada, but > >because of a poor implementation on different platforms when compared > >to C and C++ people stay away and focus on those languages instead. > > > >Problems with GNU GNAT and platform independence seems to be the one > >major reason why Ada isn't a moving target. > > > >I would like your comments on this please! > > > >Best regards. > > > >Rico Secada. > > > First you need to learn about why Ada was created. Ada was > created for "High Integrity" and "True Portability" type of > applications. Most programmers believe at the movement that most > projects do not need that level of integrity. Now this is a > falsehood, but until most programmer realize this Ada will not move > in it current level of usage. And when using the standard Ada > libraries (Ada) the program is 100% portable without modification. > > > The problem with OpenBSD is that it is designed for > security. Which means that there are fewer application that can be > ported with full functionality. Even though OpenBSD was initially > based FreeBSD it has become quite distinct. So, in porting an > application from FreeBSD or other BSD's to OpenBSD it can be a pain > because of its use of security and distinctive design. It was based upon NetBSD. > Plus, open source programming developers do not need or want > high security developmental system limiting them from creating > programs and projects just because it might violate the security on > the programmer's workstation. They need a more relax security > workstation and then add the level of security as needed for the > project. > > That means that OpenBSD is limited in its scope of > application and to be use of a platform for programming > development. > > > Now for Ada. Most programmer use a Desktop that they like > to write the code and perform primary debugging. Such as FreeBSD, > Linux, Vista and others Desktop. Then they move the code to the > core platform and complete the debugging and optimization phase. > This save time and money. Plus, sometime a programmer may not have > access to the core platform until the end of the development cycle. > > > Free Support! That's a Myth! Especially in Open Source! > Normally free support is limited to a few weeks to a few months > (90 days in some cases). As for Adacore, you can get a yearly > support but you pay a high price for it and you may not need it. > > But for normal support. You need to study the life cycle of > a program and compiler. You will find out that the vendors of the > language compiler have limited free support and have little to no > support for a project. And they only port their compilers to a > limited number of hardware platforms. Such as IBM which only > supports hardware and platform it has developed. It is up to the > project developers and programmers to provide the true support. > In an examples of a traffic light system, Adacore or any or Ada > vendor is not responsible for support. The support is provide by > two main sources: first the manufacturer of the traffic light > controller and second the software team that wrote the > controller's software. > > > Looks to me that you need to do a lot more research before wrtting > your paper. > Actually, it looks to me like you have just proven my point. >