Ada95 and the habitual human

Ada95 and the habitual human

[Ken Mays]

Hi,

Humans are creatures of habit. One of the habits I've noticed is that 
many humans do NOT like or use computers for one reason or another. Don't
expect people to accept the fact that Ada95 works in many situations over
doing the same thing in C++. Some companies still maintain JOVIAL, ATLAS, 
and other older technology. The point: Why reinvent the wheel?

So talking about developing in Ada95 is targeted towards "future" 
development. Some companies are converting code over to Ada95 but my 
philosophy is if it ain't broke then justify a rewrite!! Commodore 
rewrote AmigaDos from BCL to C/C++. Other companies rewrote machine 
language programs to C/C++ for cross platform development. There are 
justifiable reasons, but always ask yourself "is it worth it?"

Ken
SAIC

"If I told you I was bleeding, would you give me a bandage or check my 
blood pressure?"

Re: Ada95 and the habitual human

[John Apa]

Ken Mays wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Humans are creatures of habit. One of the habits I've noticed is that
> many humans do NOT like or use computers for one reason or another. Don't
> expect people to accept the fact that Ada95 works in many situations over
> doing the same thing in C++. Some companies still maintain JOVIAL, ATLAS,
> and other older technology. The point: Why reinvent the wheel?
> 
> So talking about developing in Ada95 is targeted towards "future"
> development. Some companies are converting code over to Ada95 but my
> philosophy is if it ain't broke then justify a rewrite!! Commodore
> rewrote AmigaDos from BCL to C/C++. Other companies rewrote machine
> language programs to C/C++ for cross platform development. There are
> justifiable reasons, but always ask yourself "is it worth it?"
> 
> Ken
> SAIC
> 
> "If I told you I was bleeding, would you give me a bandage or check my
> blood pressure?"

And your point would be?

We didn't used to drive these foul 4 wheeled beasts, never had magic
picture boxes, or could fly like birds. People adapted to all that and
much more.

Many companies are having to rewrite software because of hardware and
compiler/tools obsolecence. Here we all love using the i960 and it's 10
year old tools. We've done lifetime buys because of the fear of new
technology. Bad idea but we're trying to rectify it.

Technology is moving fast and we need to find a way to be able to keep
up. Ada95 is designed to help us reach that goal. Would you rather we
design only for the past? If so I hope I never work with you or use your
products. If we never think about the future and how to make things
bettter we will never get there. There wouldn't be SW without this
forward thinking, hell we'd still be trying to figure out what fire was
good for!

I agree to some extent that we shouldn't be reinventing the wheel. But
when we find a better way to do something, then we should _at_least_ try
it. After all an Indy car race would look pretty silly with granite
wheels.

Wether people like computers or not is kind of a moot point,
technophobes won't use Ada95, c++, java or whatever. They will be left
behind like those who insist on using stone tablets instead of paper.
Have you tried to find typwriter ribbons lately.

If you write software you should at least look at Ada95. It's not a
magic bullet to cure all of our woes, but it goes a long way in giving
us a better set of tools to work with. Man's ability to make better and
more powerful tools has given us the opportunity to shape our own
destiny.


PS. If you said you were bleeding, I'd tell you to get off the carpet.
Then charge you $10 for a bandage, $15 for an asprin, and $500 for the
disturbance just like the nice people in the ER do.

-- 
***********************************
Standard Disclaimers Apply
John Thomas Apa
Replace "DIE_SPAMMER" with "delphi" to email.
Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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