Re: Ada The Best Language?

["Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@home.com>]

codesavvy wrote:
> David Bolen <db3l@fitlinxx.com> wrote in message news:<u1yn5kgv0.fsf@ctwd0143.fitlinxx.com>...
> 
> I too found the 5 year old data to be non interesting and not convincing.
> 
> I too found many broken links.

It is true that there are some busted links, and old data around.

Others have responded to most of these issues, and I would just like to
add the following points to consider:

  1. As others have pointed out, since the language hasn't changed since '95,
     and so the "Ada side of the equation" has not either.

  2. What has changed since '95 is C and C++. However, I suspect that many
     here have little interest in keeping up documents about "those changes", 
     though it might be useful for winning "converts".  ;-)

  3. As far as company testimonials go, others have already pointed to 
     reasons why companies are reluctant to talk about their use of Ada.
     Some of these reasons include:

     i)   Head hunter "pillaging" of Ada programmers.  In our area, they
          are very hard to find.

     ii)  Ada is not seen as a conventional choice (advertising it's use
          may bring upon a need to support this decision internally.)

     iii) Companies may consider it "private business" -- getting such
          public endorsements approved internally, are not often worth
          the effort (you'd have to go to great lengths to explain to them
          what Ada was, let alone why the co. should list it in a public
          document).

I suppose another good reason is that the Ada comunity is probably smaller,
so there are fewer volunteers that are willing to spend time on "documentation
issues", like FAQs. Although I think a Ada language FAQ would be a good idea.

Finally, studies of the type you are looking for are expensive, time consuming,
and take years. They also need to be "controlled" so that the comparison is
meaningful. This is difficult to do unless someone has the funding to do the
same work 2 different ways!

However, I wouldn't be surprised if someone, somewhere, is doing a
comparison study to C++ right now. If so, it may take a few more years before 
we'll see the results of those studies. If not, oh well..

Warren.

> > "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@home.com> writes:
> >
> > > The www.adaic.org site is a starting place. See:
> > >
> > >     http://www.adaic.org/intro/c.html
> > >
> > > I am sure that others in this ng can give additional references, and in
> > > some cases testimonials ;-)
> >
> > Not to derail the better language discussion, but I'm not a current
> > Ada user and have been lurking for a bit here following the various
> > URLs and what not, and I was curious about one thing I noticed.
> >
> > I can't help but be struck by the fact that in almost all cases
> > (clearly there were a few exceptions), the various documents and
> > comparisions, and studies, and even some FAQs that I'm able to track
> > down all seem to be years old at this point (some over 5 years).
> >
> > The above URL is a good example.  The topmost entry on the above
> > referenced page (with a banner of "NEW") is from early 1998.  Nothing
> > in the news but a few conferences were later than 1999 and the current
> > issue of AdaIC news is Fall of 1997.  And that seems more the rule
> > than the exception from my browsing.  I've also hit more stray/broken
> > links on the Ada pages than I've seen in a long time.
> >
> > Now clearly there doesn't have to be any strong correlation between
> > such information and the language's viability itself, nor am I trying
> > to read too much into it, but I couldn't help but notice it, and it
> > just seemed strange that I didn't find more active, and more
> > importantly, recent, bits of information.
> >
> > Given that posters here clearly find use of the language in current,
> > commercial (not just military although that's obviously still true)
> > environments, is it just a poor net-presence language, or lack of
> > interest, or am I just looking in the wrong places?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > --
> > -- David

-- 
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://members.home.net/ve3wwg