Re: Ada -- a popular language?

[Dave Wood <dpw@aonix.com>]

Centaury wrote:
> 
> It seems that Ada is losing out to modern languages like C++. 

It seems that as Ada 95 post-dated C++ and Ada 83 post-dated C,
Ada is the more modern language.

> I don't seem
> to find any wide usage of Ada programming language in the region of South
> East Asia (South East Asians, verify this!).

As someone else pointed out, we know at least that Lexical Integration 
is using ObjectAda in Malaysia!  Ada is also used in Japan, Singapore,
India, Australia, etc.

> And there are no major software companies developing Ada (like C++, Pascal,
> Cobol, developed by Microsoft, Borland and several other big players).

I didn't know Microsoft made Pascal and COBOL compilers.  Is that
true?

Companies like Aonix and Rational like to think of themselves as
major (some even make the front page of the Wall Street Journal when
their stock value tanks...), but if you're going to be serious
about this point you certainly can't use Borland in the same
breath as Microsoft, which probably has a longer balance sheet than
Malaysia.  Borland isn't much bigger these days than those rogue Ada
companies, and is shrinking at an alarming rate while giving a textbook
example of how to sell compilers for the "most popular" languages (C,
C++, and Java) on the most popular platform (Windows) and still lose
money hand-over-fist.  They lost $65,000,000 in the last nine months
of 1996 alone!

Besides, it isn't the size that matters, it's the quality of your
assets. 
At least that's what my wife keeps assuring me.

> Also, what does Ada have that other programming languages don't have? and
> what do other programming languages have that Ada doesn't have?

I'm sure somebody will point you to Home of the Brave Ada Programmers
for this kind of material.

> If Ada is so powerful and versatile, why isn't everybody opting to use it,
> instead of the much complicated (but much preferred) C language?

You should be glad that not everyone is using Ada.  Using it gives you 
a tangible advantage over your less perceptive peers.  :-)

But, Ada is used more than you might think.  While C is used on vastly 
more projects, Ada tends to be used on large, complex, mission-critical,
and safety-critical projects.  You're less likely to find it unless
you're looking in the right places, although products such as ObjectAda,
GNAT, RR, etc., are now resulting in considerably more widespread use of 
Ada in academia and among smaller projects and hobbyists.

Sit back and watch C/C++ hit the brick wall of Java over the next couple
of years.  The stability of Ada can be a blessing.

-- Dave Wood
-- Product Manager, ObjectAda for Windows
-- Aonix - "Ada with an Attitude"
-- http://www.aonix.com