From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID, LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fca1b,5f8432149982f35e X-Google-Attributes: gidfca1b,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,5f8432149982f35e X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Lao Xiao Hai Subject: Re: Ada and QNX Date: 2000/10/15 Message-ID: <39EA6305.CD5CFE1F@ix.netcom.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 681893716 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <8r1i82$ri3$1@kujawiak.man.lodz.pl> <8r5pe5$h70$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <8FCDFD7EEnopenopena@63.209.170.206> X-Accept-Language: en X-Server-Date: 16 Oct 2000 02:13:12 GMT Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.os.qnx Date: 2000-10-16T02:13:12+00:00 List-Id: ahummmm wrote: > In article , > "James Boucher" wrote: > > I know this is a bit of flamebait, but as an ADA programmer > > from the old school... I love ADA, but it is DEAD. DEAD. > > DEAD. >From time to time I hear somone say that COBOL is dead. Yet I spent three hours today preparing a briefing on COBOL for someone who will present it to a large corporation's programming staff beginning Monday of this week. If a programming language dies in the middle of a forest, will anyone hear it? If someone says a programming language is dead often enough, will it become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Does the word "dead" when used to describe the state of a programming language, preclude the later use of the word, "resurrected" or perhaps, for those of you with a more mystical bent, "reincarnated?" Whatever you may think, an idea does not disappear so easily from the world and as long as there are advocates of that idea, it can find its way back into popularity. I wonder if the authormeans Ada is obsolete. If so, his amorous proclamation may be like that of a long-married spouse slipping over the brink of a forties crisis. Those who know Ada realize that it is far from obsolete. Those who do not make such pronouncements out of ignorance. Some of the alternatives to Ada are more popular. Some misguided managers have mistaken popularity for quality and several DoD contractors have made the error of forsaking Ada in favor of inferior technologies such as C++. Does this mean Ada is dead in those organizations? Not really. As people seek to abandon Ada in favor of the glitzy languages so popular in Dr. Dobbs discover how dreadful those languages are, they reconsider the benefits of Ada. C++, for example, turns out to be just another pretty face. Even as early as the wedding night, scrubbed of its makeup, shed of its adornments, the C++ honeymoon can quite suddenly be over. Sadly, we continue to see some make decisions for form over substance. But "Ada is DEAD?" Hardly. It appears that a prodigality of resources dedicated to opposing technologies was important so those deluded souls could understand the importance of what they had in the first place. Now they need to get over buyer's remorse and get back to the solid capabilities available in Ada. So, you might want to rethink you use of the adjective, "DEAD." Then again, one could consider the admonition of the poet, John Donne, in "Death Be Not Proud." Richard Riehle