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: 2003-10-04 05:55:25 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.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!newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F7EC32C.10103@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: <3F7E01EB.8090400@noplace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 12:55:24 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 165.247.65.101 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net 1065272124 165.247.65.101 (Sat, 04 Oct 2003 05:55:24 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 05:55:24 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:217 Date: 2003-10-04T12:55:24+00:00 List-Id: True - there are lots of "specialized needs" that make it difficult to forsee what parts of a library ought to be standard and what sorts of components should be left to the individual user. But a couple of observations: 1) Just because nobody was battering down the door asking for that particular feature doesn't mean that if it were in a standard library it wouldn't get used. Ada has a particular class of followers. The guys spending their time diddling around with mpeg video and other formats are most likely *not* Ada adherents. (I worked with a lot of video weenies - they're mostly doing this in C) Part of the belief has to be "If you build it, they will come!" Perhaps more accurately: "If you *don't* build it, they will stay away in droves!" You've got to think of a particular market segment and give them whatever tools they need to do the job or they have absolutely no reason to switch from what they already have to what you're offering. 2) Sometimes the existence of some feature nobody was asking for starts to generate its own interest. You put a complete audio/video library into Ada and maybe there are a bunch of college kids who got the development kit and they decide they're going to start playing games with it. Before you know it, they're the next Internet millionaires because they dreamed up some cool MTV kind of app based on the audio/video tools you gave them. Ada suddenly finds more adherents. 3) Presumably, if we were to have some kind of Conventional Ada Library, it would be getting distributed in source code format under some reasonably non-restrictive license. Hence, someone could easily start extending the library for their own specialized needs. Having done so, you'd like a mechanism for them to be able to submit their particular branch of the library for inclusion in the standard distribution. Hopefully, the publisher of the Conventional Ada Library would be willing to take it under consideration, review it to see that it met with whatever standards were maintained for the library, perhaps wave it in front of some of the user base to get some input, etc., and then include it if it seemed like the right thing to do. I sympathize with the view you express about working hard on some library feature and finding little interest in it from the customer base. You've obviously got to prioritize based on what existing users think they need. But you also have to break new ground or you will *never* attract new users from new problem domains. They've got to see tools they need in your toolkit or they have no incentive to consider it. MDC tmoran@acm.org wrote: > them. That, IMHO, is one of the problems with creating new standard Ada > libraries: each individual library seems to be wanted by only one person, > so that person winds up writing it - designed to his own immediate preferences. -- ====================================================================== 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 ======================================================================