Re: Standard Library Interest?

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

Georg Bauhaus wrote:
 >
 > In the real world? After all, afaik, most compilers don't run on bare
 > hardware, so having to maintain an OS, using non-Ada system
 > libraries, is not uncommon? As is using and files, and a repository,
 > and compilation options, and cross compilers, and version changes,
 > and so on... So using one or more additional libraries of the BLAS
 > kind might add little more than O(n) complexity, when changes in your
 > Ada setup do not affect your Fortran setup.
 >

That's not how its done. At least not in my real world. :-) Selecting a
compiler, fitting something into our whole release process and getting
code into an embedded processor is an incredibly non-trivial exercise.
Saying "O.K. here is some Fortran - go get a suitable Fortran compiler
and marry it up with your process & get it into the control..." is a
non-starter. (And then we could talk about C libraries, C++ libraries,
Java libraries, etc., etc., etc. The answer is "No.") We could toss into
the mix any sort of licensing problems if you'd like, but basically it
doesn't impact the "Hell No!" answer I'd already get by any significant
amount.

I can use Ada libraries much more easily - especially if its a
compiler-provided package.


 > : request: That there be a *standard* Ada library.
 >
 > In a way, the BLAS is certainly a most venerable "standard", with

But its not an *Ada* standard, is it? And then we start down that whole
path of "Why bother to use Ada when all the *good* stuff is in some
other language???" Why not just use *that* language and discard Ada?
That is an unbelievably difficult argument to overcome.


 >
 > Gossip notwithstanding, the situation in Java is not that different:
 > What libraries are available, and supported, for Java, _the
 > language_? Containers, I/O, XML, access control, and what else? How
 > about C++, the language?
 >
Saying "Its not part of the language but it comes with the compiler..."
is a distinction that falls on deaf ears. Its a difference that makes no 
difference, so it *is* no difference. If I get it with the compiler,
its indistinguishable from the language. Hence, Ada ought to be ready to 
play that game and provide a really huge library of really cool stuff 
that everyone would just assume was part of Ada. Why fight it? Use it!

MDC

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Marin David Condic
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