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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,4871bb700d475964 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-06 12:05:03 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!chcgil2-snh1.gtei.net!denver-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!coop.net!newsfeed1.global.lmco.com!svlnews.lmms.lmco.com!news1.lmtas.lmco.com!not-for-mail From: Gary Scott Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: an interested business-oriented programmer Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 13:14:56 -0500 Organization: LM Aeronautics Message-ID: <3B1E7320.5E21BB4F@lmtas.lmco.com> References: <9flodm$6jb$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: CAA261517.lmtas.lmco.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en]C-CCK-MCD {C-UDP; LMTAS} (WinNT; U) X-Accept-Language: en,pdf Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8254 Date: 2001-06-06T13:14:56-05:00 List-Id: Hi, So why doesn't someone put together a "Visual Ada" product integrated with Visual Studio and mass market it? They did it for Fortran... Marin David Condic wrote: > > It depends on exactly what you are looking for. > > To start with, visit: http://www.adapower.org/ since this will point you at > a lot of additional resources. I invite you to look over my Ada page at: > http://www.mcondic.com/ - you may find code and links there that would be > useful. (In particular, in my "Utilities" code, you'll find lots of > financial calculations.) > > Is Ada suitable for business software development? Absolutely! In > particular, Decimal types and Annex F aim to support business software. You > probably won't find as much suppost in other general purpose languages. From > a purely technical standpoint, I'd use Ada for serious business software > development unless I had special conditions that made something else a > better choice. (specific hardware without an Ada compiler, use of specific > subsystems, databases, etc, that make some other language more practical...) > > Books: There are a number of books out there. See AdaPower for a > bibliography. You can at least order some of them if not available in the > bookstore. (Some are unfortunately out of print.) There are also on-line > tutorials available so look for those as well. > > General advice: You can usually put together a good software development kit > for Ada that will give you more or less the same facilities you might find > in almost any other general purpose language. The down side is that you kind > of have to assemble various pieces of it on your own. The Gnat public > distribution (available free of charge - see links on Adapower or my page) > is a good place to start for a set of very portable development tools. RR > Software has an Ada compiler and a GUI Builder and API for the Windows > environment called Claw. Aonix has compilers for a variety of platforms & > other development tools as well. Lots of choices there, but you need to > figure out what all your needs are and maybe go digging around for the > missing pieces. (Ada doesn't come bundled with a large class library like > Java or MSVC++ - a down side. But you can find collections of stuff all over > that get you a lot of the same functionality.) > > You'll find that Ada is a lot more portable than other languages and that it > isn't hard to move code from one processor/OS to another - as long as you > stuck to what the language defines and don't use processor/OS dependent > third-party stuff. (GUIs are a prime example - hard to make that portable > and have all the wonderful features possible within a given OS!) This is an > advantage to Ada and also a weakness. MSVC++ provides for all intents and > purposes, its own version of C++. Using the whole of it, you won't build > portable code - especially as you use the MFC. No portability, but boy can > you get at all the nooks & crannies of Windows all from a nicely integrated > development environment. Ada can build programs to run on a PC, but you have > to assemble the pieces yourself to some extent and you don't get at all the > corners of the OS quite so easily (sometimes easier - if you have the right > tools). Personally, I'd rather do the job in Ada for a variety of reasons, > but I can see why others might opt for what they can leverage out of tools > more tailored to the specific environment. In other words, I'd recommend > Ada, but be advised you might need to pull together different pieces from > different sources rather than get a one-stop-shopping solution. > > MDC > -- > Marin David Condic > Senior Software Engineer > Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com > Enabling the digital revolution > e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com > Web: http://www.mcondic.com/ > > "Rod Weston" wrote in message > news:f7ce0059.0106060822.55a13f7@posting.google.com... > > I am currently surveying the state of programming in the business > > world, deciding where to get involved with OOP. In the few days that > > I have been evaluating Ada, it seems to have the attributes of a > > language I would like to learn, but I am rather concerned about the > > lack of popular support for it, especially in the business world. I > > went to my local Barnes and Noble bookstore last night and found not a > > single book on Ada. I went to my library and found only four books, > > two of which were written before 1987. And I haven't seen a single > > reference to a business (inventory, sales, etc.) program written in > > Ada. Could someone offer some encouragement for me? I don't mind > > being a pioneer, I just want to have some assurance that my efforts > > will not be wasted. > > > > Thanks for your consideration. > > > > Rod Weston