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: 2003-09-19 19:57:09 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F6BC200.6080307@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to get a =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBConventional_Ada_Library=AB?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?_=28Was=3A_Ideas_for_Ada_200X=29?= References: <6a90b886.0305262344.1d558079@posting.google.com> <3ED4A94C.2020501@noplace.com> <3ED6A852.75AC0133@adaworks.com> <3ED74ED3.4020505@noplace.com> <3ED7C8C5.3070902@cogeco.ca> <3ED826BB.9010509@noplace.com> <3F61BA28.3060507@crs4.it> <3F6205B8.3070402@attbi.com> <3F6316DC.7080106@noplace.com> <3F6AF506.2050906@noplace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 02:57:08 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.24.58 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net 1064026628 209.165.24.58 (Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:57:08 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:57:08 EDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:42710 Date: 2003-09-20T02:57:08+00:00 List-Id: Yeah, but it shouldn't be all that hard to produce some reasonable level of documentation for a library. I agree that if Ada is going to get a library, it needs a document, but assuming there is sufficient motivation to create a library and sufficient backing to actually get it done and distributed with compilers, don't you think a document would be a pittance in additional extra effort? I'd insist on one if I were distributing it - and it isn't as if you'd need a hundred man-years to produce something either. You just need to insist that there be a document as one of the deliverables and that it meet some reasonable acceptance criteria. Of course, making sure you get one presumes there is someone out there acting as a "customer" who has some leverage (such as a checkbook) to insist on things like documentation, coding standards, design strategy, etc. If you presume an all-volunteer effort, that gets really tough to enforce. You get whatever you get whenever they feel like giving it to you and its likely to look like a patchwork-quilt of different styles, strategies, levels of quality, etc. MDC Warren W. Gay VE3WWG wrote: > > > Which of course, brings us back to the issue of documentation ;-) > > If it takes longer to figure out how to use even a simple, efficient > library due to lack of documentation, vs finding out quickly how to > use a more bloated and less efficient but well documented library, > then my bet is that (in the non-embedded case) the later will > usually be used. > > What I have often observed in C code at least, is that a programmer > will re-invent the wheel when he is too lazy to lookup and re-use > something that exists. Certainly 2 barriers here include ignorance > and laziness, but the largest challenge is to make the > library elements "accessible", through online and/or hard copy > documentation. -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g "All reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for." --Logan Pearsall Smith ======================================================================