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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,3ccb707f4c91a5f2 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Samuel T. Harris" Subject: Re: Java vs Ada 95 (Was Re: Once again, Ada absent from DoD SBIR solicitation) Date: 1996/10/16 Message-ID: <32650BBF.41C6@gsde.hso.link.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 189850265 references: <325BC3B3.41C6@hso.link.com> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: Hughes Training Inc. - Houston Operations mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.ada x-mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; IRIX 5.3 IP19) Date: 1996-10-16T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Jon S Anthony wrote: > > In article <325FFB39.15A4@io.com> davedave@io.com writes: > > > Robert Dewar wrote: > > > > > > "Garbage collection, by itself, is significant enough for one to > > > seriously consider choosing Java over Ada for projects which do not > > > require low-level timing control. > > > " > > > > > > Nope, that does not make any sense. Any project for which Java is currently > > > suitable could equally well be done in Ada using the Intermetrics compiler > > > to JBC, which has identical garbage collection capability. > > > > An excellent idea Robert -- except for one big problem: Engineers who are > > trying to build reliable, commercial products don't generally like to use > > proucts which are still in beta. > > Hmmm, it would appear that you don't know Java as well as you might > think. The whole thing is basically in beta. Certainly the JVM > spec. available at the Sun Java web site specifically states this. So, I suppose you wouldn't want to use _any_ thing "Java"... > All the beta talk is making me dizzy (in an alpha kind of way :) The core of a application written with AppletMagic can also be run/tested on a validated Ada compiler producing native code. This does present problems in any areas where calls to any java.* packaged provided by AppletMagic since these do not exist in other Ada95 implementations. Fortunately, a project I'm working on has a clear delineation between the application itself and the UI component, so I can proceed with the hardest work with whatever compiler I want and limit my "beta-risk" to just the relatively simple UI component. Other projects may not be so fortunate. But variant code in the UI component is nothing new. Ask anyone who codes for Mac vs MS-Windows vs X-Windows. In fact, applications which have a loosely coupled UI component can have a native portion and leave the UI in the JVM. >From a distribution point of view in the Ada95 world, technologies such as AppletMagic are prime value-added additions to the development environment. It allows me to distribute any application to anyone with access to a JVM. I can then provide higher-performance native versions of that application (with mostly the same code) as customer needs (and their money) justifies the effort. Thus my supported environment list would read ... Platform X, OS Y, Windowing system Z ... Anything with Netscape Anything with MSIE Anything with Appletviewer -- Samuel T. Harris, Senior Engineer Hughes Training, Inc. - Houston Operations 2224 Bay Area Blvd. Houston, TX 77058-2099 "If you can make it, We can fake it!"