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: 2003-09-28 07:32:15 PST Path: news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.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: <3F76F0E4.2090901@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: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada? References: <3F7024F8.1000102@crs4.it> <3F71A78A.5000701@crs4.it> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 14:32:14 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.27.194 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net 1064759534 209.165.27.194 (Sun, 28 Sep 2003 10:32:14 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 10:32:14 EDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:68 Date: 2003-09-28T14:32:14+00:00 List-Id: I would seriously question the assumption that adding short-circuit operators such as += are going to attract much attention and get the C++ programmers to abandon their language of choice and come over to Ada. It would be *far* more productive to spend effort on Ada compilers/environments in ways that add leverage to development efforts. I'd even be in favor of leaving all the syntax & semantics of Ada alone in exchange for providing things like a big library or standard GUI or anything else that made Ada attractive with respect to producing better software faster than can be done in some other language. That's the sort of thing that can create *real* benefits for most development efforts and attract new business away from other languages. MDC Russ wrote: > > Also, if I may, I would suggest that this is not the time to be overly > conservative about new features in Ada. Risky ones yes, perhaps, but > not "syntactic sugar." Perhaps Ada *needs* some "syntactic sugar" > about now. Check back to the very first post in this thread, and you > will see that it's getting late in the game for Ada. How late? I'd say > we trail by 13 points with about 4 minutes to go in the fourth > quarter, and we have the ball on the opposing team's 40 yard line with > fourth down and 3 yards to go. If ever there was a time to take a > chance, it's now. If you play it safe and punt now, you are conceding > the game. -- ====================================================================== 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 ======================================================================