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: 103376,38fc011071df5a27 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-30 14:25:33 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!aanews.merit.edu!gumby.it.wmich.edu!out.nntp.be!propagator2-sterling!news-in.nuthinbutnews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!wn14feed!worldnet.att.net!207.35.177.252!nf3.bellglobal.com!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3ED7C8C5.3070902@cogeco.ca> From: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ideas for Ada 200X References: <6a90b886.0305262344.1d558079@posting.google.com> <3ED4A94C.2020501@noplace.com> <3ED6A852.75AC0133@adaworks.com> <3ED74ED3.4020505@noplace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 17:10:29 -0400 NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.96.223.163 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1054329028 198.96.223.163 (Fri, 30 May 2003 17:10:28 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 17:10:28 EDT Organization: Bell Sympatico Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:38159 Date: 2003-05-30T17:10:29-04:00 List-Id: Marin David Condic wrote: > 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? Yes, let's just march "forward". Debating about the past, is ok for lunchtime amusement on comp.lang.ada, but it won't accomplish much ;-) > 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 don't entirely agree with point "a)" as being absolutely necessary. It of course helps encourage enthusiasm, but that is not a foregone conclusion. The "b)" part might be acceptable to vendors if "a work" was done that they found agreeable. I am not certain vendor agreement is _necessary_ at this stage, or even possible. > 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. Not entirely untrue, but not necessarily a show stopper. Sure there are some that simply cannot contribute, or not at this time. > 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 Here is some of my thinking out loud (not necessarily sensible ;-) Get 1 person to organize, and perhaps the same person to "moderate" any initial discussions : - Create a special "mailing list/newsgroup" (a mailing list can be made available on gmane.org's newsgroup server, for those that prefer a nntp interface). Yahoo groups are pesky, but free. I believe this is essential, because comp.lang.ada is like inviting everyone to a meeting, and never getting consencous. - Solicit volunteers. - Get some agreement on scope - Subdivide scope and - determine package hierarchies - determine naming conventions to be used - subdivide volunteers to portions of the heirarchy - the smaller divisions the better, or perhaps in reasonable scopable swaths - solicit volunteers (repeat as necessary ;-) - do some code/design work - meet - iterate until well "baked" As a volunteer effort, there is a number of sources that we can look at and learn from. I will contribute my time, to clearly defined portions of this project, but only to something considerably smaller than Florist ;-) But I would prefer not to steer it, because I have other pet projects on the run. ;-) Ideally (maybe), the person steering this should be more familiar with what's up with Ada0Y, the industry etc. But hey, I think zeal is the most important attribute here. -- Warren W. Gay VE3WWG http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg