Re: Standard Library Interest?

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

Well, there's an excuse for having a provisional non-standard "standard" 
by way of a Conventional Ada Library. You could create a database 
interface - like possibly ODBC - and see what the reaction is. You could 
add another interface and see if that got better reception. With some 
experience under your belt, you look to the next Ada revision and 
possibly declare a "winner" that gets incorporated into the ARM. The CAL 
support for both still exists (unless there might be some really good 
reason to get rid of one) so users of the loser aren't stranded. 
Besides, they get source, so they could freeze some application to a 
particular version of the CAL and for future applications, use the one 
in the ARM.

I see lots of up-sides to having a non-standard "standard" and not many 
down-sides. It does what the standard cannot do (be flexible and react 
quickly) while not depriving the standard from growing once something 
gets proven out. All it really takes is for the vendors to say "O.K., go 
ahead and build it and we'll distribute it and declare it to be 
'Conventional'..." (O.K. There'd probably have to be some level of 
funding, but maybe not a whole lot. You just can't do something this big 
and not expect to have to spend some cashish in the process.) All the 
rest about incorporation into the ARM, etc, are issues that we have a 
wide number of ways of resolving down the road, assuming that the effort 
met with some success. Lets jump off that bridge when we get to it.

This same approach could have solved the whole square root problem too, 
don't you think? :-)

MDC


Robert I. Eachus wrote:
> 
> Agreed, but don't lose the flip side.  I am not sure if a simple 
> database interface will make it into the standard this time around.  In 
> Ada 9X it would have been a serious mistake to include one.  This time 
> it may be a mistake not to include one, but we could still goof by 
> choosing the wrong one.  This is one of the reasons I am participating 
> in this discussion.  I would much rather get the key issues for database 
> interfaces right for Ada 200X, and allow multiple implementations of the 
> actual database interfaces.
> 


-- 
======================================================================
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
======================================================================