Re: Ada student homework ?

[Nicolas Brunot <n.brunot@cadwin.com>]

Lao Xiao Hai wrote :

> I am currently watching with amusement as hordes of otherwise intelligent
> programmers are forced to learn C++, when Ada is already in place.

Just one little example. Most of software development companies provide software for Windows
This is because if you don't know anything about computers, it is still easier to use a Windows PC than
any other system, and because what you will find in your supermarket has 99% chances being a Windows
PC.
Even if it crashes 10 times a day, it's annoying but not dramatic, and most of them would do worse, or
would do nothing with an OS they don't know how to use.

As far as I know (we use it quite a lot) Win32 components are C components, and even using Ada
interface for Win32, you'd better have some knowledge of C to understand what it's all about.
That's true for any C based software component, and today few companies have no C based software
components to use.
Gnat need gcc ...

So C knowledge is not an option. Most programmers really have to know C.
While most programmers don't know anything about Ada, and are satisfied so far.

Ada users often forget that almost all of them know C as well, and would have a lot problems if they
should'nt.
Telling people than C should be abandonned, and that they don't have to know it is so unrealistic that
it's a good way to make them run from Ada.

For software companies like ours, 99% of our applications world is Windows and C components.
If we want to go on writing 99% of our code in Ada, Ada must bring great benefits (It does),
but it cannot suffer any weakness in any field towards C, and unfortunately there are still some, and
they have to disappear.

That's also true for Linux versus Windows.