Re: Looking for ADA

[Dave Wood <dpw@aonix.com>]

Rick Thorne wrote:
> 
> In article <01bc2d83$4ca9e6a0$6966f4ce@wickline>, "Warren Wickline"
> <wickline@comp-res.com> wrote:
> 
> > I'm still a college student, and I was wondering if anyone could help me
> > find a cheap ada compiler.
> 
> For the PC?!?  This is kind of like asking "Gee, I'm married with 8 kids.
> Can anyone help me get a cheap divorce and keep my child support to a
> minimum?"

I'd say you're out of touch.  ObjectAda for Windows costs $50 
for students.  Last I checked, this was less expensive than
(for example) the Borland C++ educational price.  Alternatively,
you can get a free Special Edition of ObjectAda for Windows attached
to Mike Feldman's Ada 95 textbook.

For that matter, GNAT is free as well, but for the effort of the
downloading.

> As a college student, why are you bothering with Ada anyway?  

Perhaps because his professor recognizes that Ada is superior
as a teaching language to C/C++?

> My recommendations:
> 
> 1) Learn C, C++, Java, and other language technologies that actually have
> a future in the US.

Interesting.  I wouldn't bank too much on C/C++, as the rise of Java
will come at the expense of these languages more than any other.  Not
that C/C++ will rot away and die, but I wouldn't forecast a whole lot
of growth.  There will be a glut of C/C++ programmers out there, 
competing for the same set of opportunities.  Those opportunities will
be less and less interesting as the fun stuff migrates to Java and
the really complex and challenging stuff remains a strong suit of Ada
(which also supports the JVM, but that's another topic.)

> 2) Don't sweat Ada unless you get a job in a US DoD contractor's shop or a
> job in Europe, then let THEM pay you to work while you learn the language.

... or unless you might be interested in working in some boring area
like
cutting edge Boing commercial avionics, Westinghouse nuclear plant
controls, or the NASA space station, rather than experience the
excitement 
of writing unix file filters and hacking null pointer dereferences.

Well, if you can stereotype, so can I.  :-)

> 3) Keep your C, C++, & Java skills sharp whilst you work with Ada, because
> Ada's going away quickly, yes, even in the DoD world because of the Perry
> Initiative and the soon-to-happen elimination of the Ada Requirements
> (probably by july '97).

Interesting theory.  I can tell you that sales of my products have
risen sharply over the past year, and I can assure you the phenomenon
has nothing at all to do with DoD requirements.

Still, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from having "sharp skills"
in C, C++, or Java.  After all, we encourage multi-lingual development
solutions.  It's a surreal experience to see Ada source code being
debugged by Visual J++.

In any event, my position has always been that anyone who cannot 
ramp up to speed in a very short period of time for any general 
purpose langauge has no business considering him/herself a software
engineer.  That's where the "sharp skills" pay off.  Language is 
important to the program, but should be irrelevant to the programmer.

> 4) Learn OOA/D methods; these are the elements of the Software Crisis
> unsolved by Ada.  As Brooks stated in "No Silver Bullet": Ada is just a
> programming language.  It doesn't cover all the ground by any means.

I think this is perhaps a perverse interpretation of a very fine 
bit of writing.

Further, if you think that OOA/D methods are in any way a silver
bullet, I'd suggest you take another look at Brooks' title.  His
central point was that it takes good methods, good tools, good
languages, good processes, and above all good engineers to slay 
the beast.  Encouraging a student to forego looking into a good 
language seems inconsistent with your reference to Brooks.

> Good luck, and look to a future that HAS a future.

Skilled and thoughtful software engineers have an excellent
future, regardless of transient technological choices.  Personally,
I'd rather work on *projects* that have a future.  Anybody can
get a job, but if I'm going to spend years of my life on a project,
I'd like to see it fly rather than fall into the great software
graveyard.  My opinion and experience is that projects based on Ada 
have a better shot at making it over the long haul.

> --
> ? Rick Thorne                            ?  "I'm quite illiterate, ?
> ?     software engineer by day           ?   but I read a lot"     ?
> ?     harried father of two by night     ?          J. D. Salinger ?
> ?     rick.thorne@lmco.com               ?                         ?


Don't quit your night job.  :-)


-- Dave Wood
-- Product Manager, ObjectAda for Windows
-- Aonix - "We don' need no stinking mandate."
-- http://www.aonix.com