Re: Reasons NOT To Choose Ada

[Steve Jones - JON <Steve.Jones@eurocontrol.fr>]

Michiel Perdeck wrote:
> 
> I can think of some reasons, can you refute them?
> 1. Difficult to get Ada experts.
Umm not really, there are around 100 on this site and probably 1000 on
my last project alone.

> 2. Learning the language takes long (= expensive).
I'd say learning C takes longer as explaining pointers, memory
deallocation etc to new programmers takes ages (and they still get it
wrong).

> 3. The particular system interfaces with C/C++ API's.
This is a problem, bindings do help but they always come along after you
need them, as a result you have to write your own all the time.

> 4. Ada is not right for GUI programming.
This just isn't right, the project I'm on at the moment has zero lines
of C code in it, uses Ada bindings for PEX and X and gets along just as
well as the last project where we used C for the GUI.  The only problem
is that the bindings aren't as powerful as they could be.  You just have
to be smarter.

5. Ada doesn't have Microsoft support

6. There is no VisualAda or Borland Ada.  Most Ada compilers are still
rather poor. They tell you what the problem is in the same way a C
compiler does.

7. Ada isn't "cool" the DoD are big men in suits. Sun are "cool" and so
are K&R.



> ....
> ....
> Please add to this list and if possible add refutations.
> 
> I imagine that an operation like this could have been done before, I'm
> interested in references.
> 
> Regards, Michiel
>