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From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Another measure of Ada's rejection by corporate America
Date: 25 Feb 1995 14:44:33 -0500
Organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Message-ID: <3io1b1$7bv@gnat.cs.nyu.edu>
References: <3iigbo$o3p@rational.rational.com>
 <3ijhs0$g2k@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gnat.cs.nyu.edu
Date: 1995-02-25T14:44:33-05:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

The comparison Ada : OS/2 : Porsche
with           C : DOS/Windows : Volkswagon

is actually one that is pretty favorable to Ada.

Yes, DOS/Windows is more popular than OS/2, but millions of people are
using OS/2 to solve problems that would either be impossible or unsatisfactory
if Windows were used to address them.

Similarly, a substantial number of drivers are very happy to drive their
Porshe's and would not consider driving or racing Volkswagen's in their place.

Sure, C is much more pupular than Ada, and lilkely to remain so for the
forseeable future, no one disagrees with that. But popularity is only
one measure (after all judged this way, C is probably a failure compared
to the miserable language used to program macros in Lotus 1-2-3, and COBOL
may still have more programmers trudging around than C). 

The important thing is that, as in the OS/2 and Porshe cases, there will be
cases in which the advantages of Ada play a critical part. The success of
Ada will depend on two things:

   1. Developing technology that can realize the potential of Ada 95

   2. Working hard to identify and exploit those cases in which Ada can
	present a substantial advantage.