Re: is ada dead?

["Andrzej Lewandowski" <lewandoREMOVE@attglobal.net>]

"Michal Nowak" <vinnie@inetia.pl> wrote in message news:mailman.994589417.11908.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
> On 01-07-07, at 17:41, Andrzej Lewandowski  wrote:
>
> >But almost everybody is using Java and almost non\body is using Ada.
>
> And who is using it? I don't.

Your problem, your choice.

> Maybe except applets on www pages.
> And you think it is good? Java was intended to be more OO-language than
> C++, to help desingning good software. It is step forward in some parts,
> but I think it can cause bad habits. Many my friends write in Java - they
> turned into "Java-people". But only little percent of them writes good
> code. In many cases Java code bacame more messy than C++ code. ???
> Yes, garbage collector made them lazy. "I put it here or there, never
> mind, garbage collector will do its job". They gaining bad habits. Java
> can be one-way ticket. Switching back to other languages can be difficult
> (I observed this on labs - many of them had big problems in learning Ada
> and trobles in understaning it.)

I was thinking the same way when I was in the Academia. Now I am working for
industry. My company has good programmers, good designers and they are
writing good Java code. All these are not oxymorons. Good programmer will
write good program in any language, bad programmer will write bad program in
any language. have you ever seem C program written in Ada? You can find
some excellent examples in some book published long ago by Springer. By
the way, we have commercial system for logistics management that sells
pretty well. It is all in Java, over 300 KLOC.

Yes, Java has its problems, threading model is one of them. I made an attempt
to use Ada (JGNAT strictly speaking) to write selected modules. Unfortunately, the
cost of support was prohibitive. I am ready to pay for support, but the cost must
be in sync with the rest of industry.

Java threading model can be easily fixed. I am using CSP model, strictly speaking
JCSP implementation from the University of Kent. Great!

Switching to new language is business decision. Such transition costs a lot and must be
carefully justified. I really cannot find arguments to switch to Ada. For what?... No
programmers, tools in 6 digit range, vendors with unknown financial
future. Moreover, except of programmers we have QA specialists, implementation services,
maintenance service, etc. All these people should know the language to some extent. How it
would cost to replace 50 people? Or to retrain them? And for what? To have "better"
language?

A.L>