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: 103376,1116ece181be1aea X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-09-09 01:30:12 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsmi-us.news.garr.it!newsmi-eu.news.garr.it!NewsITBone-GARR!newsserver.cilea.it!news.crs4.it!not-for-mail From: Jacob Sparre Andersen Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada? Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 21:15:50 +0200 Organization: CRS4, Center for Adv. Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia Message-ID: <3F5CD566.3040304@crs4.it> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: sparre.crs4.it Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: pietro.crs4.it 1063091621 9939 156.148.70.170 (9 Sep 2003 07:13:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@nntpserver.crs4.it. NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Sep 2003 07:13:41 GMT User-Agent: Any Browser, HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 X-Accept-Language: fo, da, no, sv, is, fr, de, it, In-Reply-To: Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:42312 Date: 2003-09-09T07:13:41+00:00 List-Id: Warren W. Gay VE3WWG wrote: [ begin quote from article ] > Among the key motivations for the military's interest in Java is a drive > to transition away from Ada. [ end quote from article ] What matters to me is: 1) that those I pay tax to don't waste money (on bad software) 2) that there are sufficient resources to continue the development and improvement of Ada compilers and libraries Since I don't pay tax to the USA, I don't care much about 1) in this specific case. But I have been made aware that all recently awarded ESA software development contracts have come with clauses that the software must be developed in C. Since I have made it a habit to pay tax in ESA member countries this really annoys me (and quite a few of the people, who have to write the code). I don't know where the Ada compiler industry gets its revenues from. If it is mostly from US DoD and ESA subcontractors, then we may have a serious problem with respect to 2). I am sorry to say that the available product ranges and prices in the Ada compiler market mean that I probably (unwillingly and indirectly) have poured more money into unused MS-Windows licenses than into Ada compilers and support contracts. But if all those who currently pay for all the nice Ada compilers we can get stop paying, we have to find some other model to maintain the availability of the tools we want. Until now I have been rather lazy, when it comes to active work on GNAT and general purpose Ada libraries (I am much too much better at complaining). But I think there are enough knowledgable people, who can and are willing to put in a bit of effort to continue to have access to good Ada tools. > So: Is the writing on the wall for Ada? I don't think so. Jacob -- Wie "Tippfehler !?" Mein Modem hat doch Fehlerkorrektur...