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-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-30 10:51:48 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: file13@qlippoth.zzn.com (file13) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language Date: 30 Jul 2001 10:51:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <28d8936a.0107300951.5ae5cce@posting.google.com> References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> <9k3l9r$10i2$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B656345.64AB603A@sneakemail.com> <9k3oa1$2qg8$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B657715.7EC592D9@sneakemail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 194.72.9.37 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 996515508 8100 127.0.0.1 (30 Jul 2001 17:51:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-support@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 Jul 2001 17:51:48 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10778 Date: 2001-07-30T17:51:48+00:00 List-Id: > I am new to Ada, and I believe that gives me a certain perspective that > Ada veterans lack. I am making a proposal that could save the best > programming language around, and all I get is a bunch of irrelevant > criticism. i'm also fairly new to Ada (within this year) and i love both Python and Ada. i understand what you're saying and i agree that syntactically, Python does have features that fit Ada's spirit--enforcing good style. but i simply don't agree that Ada's lack of popularity has anything to do with its syntax. (in fact as a former C/Perl junkie, i LIKE Ada's syntax and think using := for assignment is much clearer and using = for equality makes more sense to me and avoids the easy == error.) but the popularity of programming languages, like anything else, is based on money. how many people think Java would be as popular as it is if Sun didn't pump millions into promoting it? since we don't have Sun's deep pockets, it seems that we would need to start a new grassroots revolution by promoting Ada to the new hacker culture. now as a young Ada programmer who is working to promote Ada by writing open source software in Ada (http://sourceforge.net/projects/fu-scan/) i think that bringing attention to Ada is more important then changing the language. i believe that if Ada is to become popular among the hacker culture, it must be promoted to the kids who have never heard of it. most of them have never even heard of Ada and think that programming begins with C++ and ends with Java--or worse VB. they are simply unaware that Ada is powerful, fast, easy to learn, easy to main, easy to debug, and thanks to GNAT, open source--"really, you don't have to pay Bill to use this language." the reason they think they need to learn C/C++ is because they don't know about other languages. i used to be one of those people who thought that C++ was the greatest thing since sliced bread and pretty much the only "REAL" compiled language. but then out of pure chance, i discovered Ada and instantly feel in love with it. i think if younger programmer knew the advantages of Ada and saw more open source software written in Ada they would be more inclined to check it out. ignorance of Ada aside, i also think that languages like Python actually help bring people to Ada by promoting the KISS philosophy--keep it simple stupid!--and good program design. this KISS principle is what brought me to Python in the first place. since i liked this philosophy in Python, i was even more drawn to Ada once it was brought to my attention. another thing that i think would help would bring Ada to new people would be a good IDE--another thread on this..... yes, Aionix does have a Visual Studio like IDE and windows has Adagide, but i mean a portable open source solution. imagine integrating Ada95 support into kdevelop for instance? http://www.kdevelop.org/ imagine kdevelop being portable to windows.... i personally don't care for IDE's myself--xemacs or death--but most of your new programmers think that to compile a program you push "compile." i think that if they had a preety IDE which took care of this for them, Ada would be more attractive. finally, i think that we need to play up Ada's "bondage and discipline" reputation and start dressing Lovelace up in fetish gear if we want to draw a lot of people to Ada..... ;) -- file13 http://haxor.redcommandos.com/~file13/ -- "...war is about killing people and destroying things...that requirement is...best met through the use of Ada." Lt. Col. John A. Hamilton Jr. U.S. Military Academy http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1997/dec/languages.asp