Re: Standard Library Interest?

[Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com>]

I didn't say you didn't. What I said was that Ada has a 10 year cycle 
(more or less) for revising the standard. Do you think it likely that 
the next revision review will start in 2005 given that there is, as of 
yet, no Ada0x and at best it would be Ada04? Hence, I take exception to 
the notion that there is really a 5 year cycle. Its more like 5 years 
*after* a language standard has been issued a new review will be 
initiated. But then you've got maybe another 5 years of reviewing, etc., 
before the *next* standard would be issued.

Mind you, I'm not being critical or trying to say it is a bad thing. A 
standard needs some kind of stability or the compiler writers would be 
shooting at a moving target and the developers would have no clue as to 
what they could count on.

What I *am* saying is that if Ada is going to have some kind of 
Conventional Ada Library full of tools, that the Ada language standard 
is the entirely wrong place to put it. (At least initially - the 
standard could accept parts of it down the road if it was viewed as 
stable and something that belonged in the standard.) A library needs to 
be able to be revised and extended *QUICKLY* (relative to the standard - 
say quarterly or semi-annualy) in order to react to rapidly changing 
events in the computer biz. If someone comes up with a new communication 
interface or file format or internet protocol and your library is 
supporting the general concept around that, you need to make additions 
or changes to your library to accommodate it or you're dead in the water 
with a useless product. If someone comes up with some whiz-bang new 
Internet thingie and Ada says "Yeah, that's cool. We'll have an 
interface for that in *TEN YEARS* when the new ARM comes out..." what 
will the users do? They'll go to Java or C++ or whoever is the first one 
to give them the interface.

Ada has *got* to find a way to provide lots more utility to the end-user 
and it needs to do so *quickly*. If it isn't with a Conventional Ada 
Library, then make it something else. Basically, I think we end up in 
the dustbin of history if we don't find a way to make Ada more useful 
and react quickly to customer demands. The users *have* and *will* go 
elsewhere if you don't provide what they want.

MDC


Martin Dowie wrote:
> 
> 
> But we did have the TC in 2000
> 
> 


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Marin David Condic
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