Re: Ideas for Ada 200X

[Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com>]

Well, getting a "Necessity" is "A Good Thing." ;-)

Perhaps we're in violent agreement. I've argued here in the past that 
getting some kind of "Conventional" library of stuff is highly important 
to Ada. Without it, developers look at things like Java and MSVC++ and 
say "I don't care if Ada is theoretically better. I get huge leverage 
using Language X and that gets me to market quicker..." Hence, as you 
observe, without some reasonably extensive library, Ada can continue to 
remain in the shadows.

I have suggested that the vested interests in Ada (compiler vendors, 
SIGAda and any big-time users) charter some group to come up with a 
library that would be agreed upon as "The Conventional Ada Library" and 
make a reference implementation to be distributed with all compilers. It 
would need to be easily updated and should cover a wide range of 
interests (Data structures, networking, OS interfacing, math, business, 
graphics, GUIs, whatever. Its easy to make a list and prioritize.) So 
far, aside from a few fellow zealots and gadflies, there doesn't seem to 
be much noise comimg from the players who would matter. Hence, I assume 
that without much interest or support from the key participants, Ada 
will continue to lack a "Conventional Ada Library" for some time to come 
and numerous projects will continue to go to Java and MSVC++.

MDC


Tarjei T. Jensen wrote:
> "Marin David Condic" wrote:
> 
>>I think a standard Ada sockets package would be A Good Thing.
> 
> 
> It is not A Goo Thing. It is A Neccessity. It must be present for Ada to
> survive in general computing.
> 
> It is time to decide what a programmer should be able to do with Ada right
> out of the box. Also called "How things should work". If this is not done,
> Ada will continue to struggle.
> 
> Currently the main Ada problem is -- as far as general computing is
> concerned -- the standard library. We need to re-focus on what is needed
> today and not what was moderately useful in 1984.
> 
> I still recommend "The Inmates Are Running The Asylum". Read it and then we
> can start discussing the persons and what they need in order to do their
> job.


-- 
======================================================================
Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jast.mil/

Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g

     "In general the art of government consists in taking as
     much money as possible from one class of citizens to give
     to the other."

         --  Voltaire
======================================================================