Re: Customer balks at Ada -- any hope?

[Scott Ingram` <scott@silver.jhuapl.edu>]

mjsilva@my-deja.com wrote:

> In article <39748F35.72CBC45A@averstar.com>,
>   Tucker Taft <stt@averstar.com> wrote:
> >
> > Another important point is that good programmers can learn new
> >languages
> > quickly, and Ada compilers provide excellent "training wheels" because
> > of their abundant compile-time error checking.
>
> I definitely want to select some clear Ada source code to back this
> point.  I also suspect that when one selects only embedded-savvy
> programmers the balance isn't nearly so lopsided for C++.  It's pretty
> obvious to me that it's easier to teach an embedded-savvy programmer
> Ada (especially "maintainence" Ada) than to teach a "generic" C++
> programmer embedded smarts.
>
> Mike

Hmmm....I have no formal training in programming.  (Come to think
of it, I have very little formal training in anything!)  But I must point
out
from my perspective as an electronic technician that maintaining an
embedded system in Ada (which is one of my jobs) is much easier than
maintaining a system of equal complexity in C (also one of my jobs.)
Once your management types twig to the fact that they don't need the
equivalent of Leonardo da'Vinci to maintain code, they may be more
convincing to your customer.

An added benefit in my case is that my Ada experience made it
simple for me to learn to write test benches in VHDL, again freeing
resources that get paid more than I do for the equivalent work.