Re: Ada The Best Language?

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

codesavvy wrote:
> I would love to see Ada more widely adopted and/or the demand increase
> for Ada developers.  The case has to be made to management not me.  My
> question is, "Is the case for Ada being made effectively?"

I guess my response is "By whom?" and "Probably not."

Part of the problem is that people still associate "Ada" with the
features of "Ada83" -- not the more modern Ada95. Given the age of
management, and the fact that the ones with tech experience got away
from it before 1995, will mean that this will be the norm.

The other stigma that still is attached seems to be "oh, isn't that the
language that the military use?" Or "wasn't that the language designed
by committee?"  Only education can overcome these biases.

I do believe that the fact that Ada is being increasingly used in Universities
means that more graduates will be entering the work force with a more
informed opinion of Ada. The freely available GNAT compiler also makes
it possible for people to get first hand experience with the language
without shelling out a fortune.  Both of these factors have been a
"relatively recent innovation", and so only time will tell if more
people manage to ride that bandwagon.

The other emerging factor may be the rise in Open Sourced/GPLed
projects written in Ada. More people will actually see Ada being
used, and if they want to recompile/modify it, they'll need to have
the GNAT compiler et al installed as well. Once it is on your system,
you might be more inclined to try it too ;-)

As far as convincing management -- that is where those of us who care
must be prepared to educate.  In some cases, like Linux/FreeBSD, you
can simply sneak it in the back door. After all, the pearl zealots
get away with this! ;-)

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