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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,3885b7fd66a1db28 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-01-08 09:44:54 PST Message-ID: <3E1C62C7.5070005@cogeco.ca> From: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Why is Ada NOT a good choice for a beginner to programming? References: <15FN9.2313$c6.2612@bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com> <8ivo1vo5ir3piqsck4ondj0cuo47g426kf@4ax.com> <9gMS9.483613$GR5.189928@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 12:41:27 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.96.47.195 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1042047687 198.96.47.195 (Wed, 08 Jan 2003 12:41:27 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 12:41:27 EST Organization: Bell Sympatico Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!cyclone.bc.net!torn!webster!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:32753 Date: 2003-01-08T12:41:27-05:00 List-Id: faust wrote: > "Jeffrey Creem" , emitted these fragments: >>are more worried about picking the winner so they can be "right" then they >>are about applying critical thinking and making an intellegent selection. > > Since to many, languages are tools that they use in their professional > lives, being "right" can be important. Being "right" means being able to deliver, be on time, be reliable and be able to maintain the result. Usually management will listen to talented thinking and if you push your viewpoint, being right may in fact mean doing "the real right thing". However, if you must work within the confines of a larger team, where your viewpoint is not shared WRT Ada (which seems rather common), then unless you are top dog, or have convincing arguments for both management and your team, you are correct in that the "right" thing becomes muddied with politics (I will refuse to call it the "right thing" however ;-) > On the other hand, if you are a hobbyist , an academic or a government > contractor, well you can ignore the market place. I agree with Ted (in a separate post), that it is probably wise to ignore the market popularity WRT tools. You need to look at the life cycle of your product and then evaluate if a waning market may influence your ability to provide support. To base a new 20-year product on a trendy new tool, is for example, not wise. Someone last year (Ted?) was discussing the problem of providing replacement motherboards for Navy ships, running military apps on NT (I think it was). Imagine trying to buy the same thoroughly tested 486 MBs today? Software support is not much different. -- Warren W. Gay VE3WWG http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg