Re: Why is ada dead?

[James Rogers <jimmaureenrogers@worldnet.att.net>]

Stefan Skoglund wrote:
> 
> raj wrote:
> > The Ada community ( like the lisp comunity: yes I do know about Paul
> > Graham's 49 million dollar sale to Yahoo ..) seem better at debating
> > the benefits of the language than actually writing commercially
> > visible software .
> 
> The Ada system houses should really do the Ada Airlines PR
> gimmick !!
> 
> They should also do the Ada railway gimmick to...
> hmm, not good railways is seen by americans as being obsolete...
> hmm, no american would probably believe what the SNCF did
> a few days ago... (a special run between Calais and Marseille)

Oh, you mean the trip did not take three days, with frequent stops
to allow freight the right of way, and to allow maintenance crews
to repair 100 year old rails?

Nope. No American would believe that. 

American railroads currently carry more traffic than ever before in
their history. The plain truth, however, is that only a tiny fraction
of that traffic is passenger. Almost all is freight.

Here in Colorado Springs, the rails are busy day and night with
freight traffic. The largest fraction of that is trains carrying
coal. Every day there are several trains of over two kilometers
length carrying nothing but coal from the coal mines of
Wyoming and Idaho.

Of course, we do have one little passenger train in our area.
That would be the train that travels to the top of Pike's Peak.
The equipment for that train was purchased from Switzerland
a long time ago. The track is steep enough to require a cog
rail system. The train route rises 8000 feet (2.4 Km) in about 
12 miles (19.3 km) to a final altitude of 14110 feet (4.3 Km).
This is far too steep for normal trains.

Some of that coal stops in Colorado Springs. We generate our
electricity from burning coal. We also provide all the power our
city needs from local power plants. We do this with negligable
air polution. Recently the American Lung Association declared that
Colorado Springs has the third cleanest air of all American
cities. As an example, on an average day I can clearly see 
mountains over 70 miles away. That is not bad for average air
quality. On a good day I can see mountains over 200 miles
away. Today I can only see about 70 miles, but we are currently
having thunderstorms.

I will be surprised if the US ever develops a train that can 
compete with the French TGV. In the West the population is too
sparse to support the cost. In the East the cost of acquiring the
right of way would be too expensive. Current rail lines could not
be converted because they contain too many sharp turns to support
high speed rail travel. 

Jim Rogers
Colorado Springs, Colorado USA