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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-30 07:58:10 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!feeder.via.net!cyclone-sf.pbi.net!206.13.28.143!news.pacbell.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3B657715.7EC592D9@sneakemail.com> From: Russ Paielli <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.3-20mdk i686) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> <9k3l9r$10i2$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B656345.64AB603A@sneakemail.com> <9k3oa1$2qg8$1@pa.aaanet.ru> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 08:02:45 -0700 NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.194.87.148 X-Complaints-To: abuse@pacbell.net X-Trace: news.pacbell.net 996505080 63.194.87.148 (Mon, 30 Jul 2001 07:58:00 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 07:58:00 PDT Organization: SBC Internet Services Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10751 Date: 2001-07-30T08:02:45-07:00 List-Id: Larry Kilgallen wrote: > > One of the best things about Ada is stability. There have only been two > versions of the standard, and vendor extensions are well under control. > There are many things that can be done to make Ada more popular outside > the language definition. Any changes to the language pale by comparison > in their effect. Making Ada more popular would not be desireable if it > hurt the clarity and correctness advantages Ada has now. My proposal is deliberately designed to have a minimal effect on stability. As I said, a relatively simple preprocessor would be able to translate back and forth between Ada95 and the syntax I am proposing. If you want to continue to use Ada95 syntax, you could do so with impunity. What's the problem? In the meantime, the Ada community seems determined to rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. I read recently that only one in ten new DoD WEAPONS programs is even choosing Ada now that the DoD mandate has been dropped. Don't even ask about DoD accounting and supply-chain management programs! I am trying to sell Ada for a safety-critical program, and I am getting little or no support from my organization. I get forwarded email messages from full professors of CS at MIT claiming that Ada is being replaced by Java even in their studies of software reliability. You Ada guys seem determined to let Ada slip into oblivion. I'll bet HAL and Jovial programmers are proud of the stability of their languages too. I am new to Ada, and I believe that gives me a certain perspective that Ada veterans lack. I am making a proposal that could save the best programming language around, and all I get is a bunch of irrelevant criticism. Russ