Re: Would you use Ada more if...

[Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com>]

"Marin D. Condic" wrote:

> Now, while Ada has certainly come down in cost to be competitive with other
> languages, it still suffers in some respects for lack of nice integrated
> toolsets all available in a shrink-wrap package on the shelf at CompUSA.
> Things are getting better and more/better integrated toolsets are becoming
> available or are in the works. You still won't see Ada standing next to the
> C/C++/Java/Basic/etc. development kits on the shelves at computer stores. It
> would be good for Ada to be there.

What is just as bad is that no Ada books appear on the shelves
of bookstores anymore, even those that specialize in computer
books.   Book publishers, all of them as nearly as I can determine,
have decided against publishing any new Ada books.   Their view
is that, once the DoD abandoned Ada, the market for Ada books
would decline to a point where it would be unprofitable.

At several bookstores, I even saw books on Pascal, Modula-3,
and other marginal languages.   People who don't see Ada in
evidence anywhere are likely to thing it really is gone.

At present, there is no significant effort within our industry to
raise the level of visibility for Ada.   No one is writing articles,
and even if they do, editors are disinclined to publish anything
too directly related to Ada.  The best way to get an Ada article
published is to write about something else and "Oh, by the way,
we did this in Ada."   Even the large number of stories written
about the Boeing 777 rarely mention that the language used
was Ada.   However, when an Arianne V explodes, everyone
is quick to note that it was programmed in Ada.   We really
need a more effective effort in PR.

I continue to encounter professors where I teach who are surprised
that anyone is still using Ada.   A conference program chair who
wanted me to present a tutorial stated emphatically, "But no Ada,
please."    If the new audience for Ada is not getting the message,
we are in deep trouble.

ACT is doing its part by providing cost-effective options for
entering the world of Ada.   I would be surprised if they are
getting a lot of new customers just starting to use Ada for the
first time.  My guess is that most of the customers for most of
the Ada compiler publishers are continuing from Ada 83
rather than starting new projects in Ada 95.   Does anyone
have better information about this?

Richard Riehle