Re: Ideas for Ada 200X

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

Well, given that we can't correct the past to be what we want it to be, 
how would we go about trying to fix the situation now? Is there a 
credible "going forward" plan that might have enough support from 
interested Ada parties that it might conceivably work?

I would think it might be possible to get some sort of small team 
together that could do work to extend the capabilities of Ada, but it 
would require a) some amount of funding and b) some agreement on the 
part of vendors, et alia, to accept and use the result. I'm sure there 
are many folks who would volunteer *some* time and effort to produce 
something, but most folks have day jobs and can't devote sufficient time 
to it unless there is some remuneration involved. If funding could be 
found to support a team of 3 to 4 people for a year or two and the rest 
was fleshed out by volunteer efforts, we might be able to come up with 
some collection of libraries that the vendors might be willing to 
package with their products (Or at least point to as "The Conventional 
Ada Library")

Ideas? Suggestions? Or is it doomed to fail?

MDC

Richard Riehle wrote:
> 
> The two most important features of Java are the libraries and the JVM.
> The language is rather pedestrian and of would be of little consequence
> if it were not for the libraries.
> 
> We have never been able to agree on the format of nor the functionality
> of standard libraries for Ada (with the exception of a conservative few
> that made it into the Ada 95 Annexes).   As a  consequence, newcomers
> find themselves prowling around the Web to locate something they can
> use  for graphics, GUI's, data structures, etc.  Java has a corporate sponsor
> and is not an ISO standard (nor will it be for a while).   C++ has the
> STL,  but it interfaces  well to MFC and other GUI environments.
> 
> Sadly, there is no corporate or governmental sponsor for Ada so most of
> the effort is either a "labor of love" (Charles, GWindows, CLAW, etc.),
> or produce for a specific need as needed.  It is a big mistake for the DoD
> to discontinue funding for Ada since it is still used for a lot of projects.
> In fact, some of those organizations that charged off in the direction of
> C++ have discovered the folly of that decision.  Unfortunately, instead
> of returning to Ada, as they should, they are attempting to use even more
> inappropriate tools such as Java, largely because of hype, but also because
> of the libraries.
> 
> This could be fixed, but it will required money.  Where will that money come
> from?  What company with deep pockets is willing to fund Ada?
> 
> The recent discussion about JSF developers deciding to use Ada because,
> even though it is a better language for the purpose than C, it is not popular
> enough, should be a good lesson.  They, in effect, have said, we are picking
> the less effective set of tools because more people know how to use
> them.  While this is an emminently stupid line of reasoning, it illustrates
> the prevailing rationale for language selection.   The availability of good
> libaries will not cure anyone of congenital stupidity, but it might make some
> potential users of Ada more amenable to helping it become more popular.
> 
> Richard Riehle
> 


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

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