Re: Ada-inspired OS/Language

[nickroberts@blueyonder.co.uk (Nick Roberts)]

On Fri, 06 Sep 2002 10:31:26 -0700, Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com>
strongly typed:

>Nick Roberts wrote:
>
>> By the way, there is a simple overview of AdaOS now available at
>>
>> http://www.adaos.net
>
>The architecture looks pretty good.   Hope you can bring
>it to completion.

Thanks, and I shall try.

>One comment.  I am concerned about calling it AdaOS.  At
>present, anything with the name Ada in it is likely to be
>ignored by the larger audience you would hope to gain.
>
>The published product would do well to stand on its own,
>support languages besides Ada, and have a name that
>makes Ada less of an explicit issue.   In time, people
>concerned with the technology will realize that it is
>written in Ada, while those who simply want to get
>some work done will use it without any knowledge
>of its underlying implementation.

I rather agree with you. AdaOS was originally named 'Alguinntar', which was
perhaps not the most inspiring name! Shortly after the project was formed
(in 1999), the members (then about 15) had a vote on the name, and the
overwhelming majority voted for 'AdaOS'.

In fact, there are some advantages. Occasionally someone will ask "Is that
AdaOS as in the Ada language I've heard of somewhere?," and this naturally
gives me the perfect ouvre for my (now polished ;-) 'sales' spiel about
Ada.

In fact, nearer the time, what I might do is to invent various 'marketing'
names for different releases of AdaOS. How many names does Linux have now?

I intend to implement a judicious selection of other languages on AdaOS.
For example, SQL3 or OQL for the database engine, and a C compiler. Maybe a
JVM.

>Meanwhile, if this project gets to the point where we can
>see it becoming a reality, some of us ought to get busy
>writing applications for it.   The only way it will become
>popular is if real people use it.   Those real people will
>need spreadsheets, word processors, etc.

Absolutely. AdaOS will be an object-oriented OS. This will provide a
framework for componentware, which I am sure is the key to getting
sophisticated application software out there without going through the
classic heavy programming cycle first.

I am not certain, but if AdaOS is based on CORBA 3, the opportunity will be
there for the direct import of COM components. Now we all know how reliable
typical COM components tend to be ;-) but this could be handy.

-- 
Nick Roberts