From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,5cb36983754f64da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-04-05 05:30:58 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!border1.nntp.ash.giganews.com!border2.nntp.ash.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!d9c68f36!not-for-mail Message-ID: <40715172.5040709@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: No call for Ada (was Re: Announcing new scripting/prototyping language) References: <20040206174017.7E84F4C4114@lovelace.ada-france.org> <54759e7e.0402071124.322ea376@posting.google.com> <406EB6D2.8030801@noplace.com> <87d66pyw1g.fsf@insalien.org> <406EEC35.7040109@noplace.com> <874qs0zvy1.fsf@insalien.org> <87zn9sygtj.fsf@insalien.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 12:30:57 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.1.121 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net 1081168257 209.165.1.121 (Mon, 05 Apr 2004 05:30:57 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 05:30:57 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:6748 Date: 2004-04-05T12:30:57+00:00 List-Id: Textbooks would help. It may not be as hard as you think. Obviously, there are a number of good texts about Ada already in existence. One that was aimed at a more "How To" level could be put together and might encourage more people to investigate Ada. Suppose there was a textbook that came with a whole shrink-wrap development kit that included a compiler (Gnat?) an editor (GPS?) a GUI builder (GtkAda?) a database (GNADE/MySQL?) and a class library that provided facilities for a wide variety of purposes such as data structures, networking, etc. (???) What if they all worked nicely together? What if it installed with the simplicity of plugging in the disk and answering "Yes" to everything on the install shield? What if it had a pre-fabricated "Project Library" concept so that all the pieces (stuff generated by GtkAda, Gnade, etc) were kept in some comprehensible, manageable place rather than have the end user struggle to figure out where to put all the pieces and how to get them all to compile/run? What if the book were not written on a high academic level and was instead written as a "How To" book that walked the user through how to build everything from a "Hello World" app to a multi-window GUI app that utilized a complex database & networking? Might that not start approaching what you can get from other languages? Would that not make it easier for a hobbyist or student or small company to start using Ada? It may not be a sufficient condition for someone to start adopting Ada, but I think it is a necessary one. Saying that all the pieces exist out there on the Internet somewhere is *not* the same as saying "Here's your disk. Plug it in and get started learning/using Ada with *no* fuss over the tools." MDC Ludovic Brenta wrote: > I would add that, I think the best way to promote Ada is to write "Ada > for Dummies" books and litter bookstores with them. This, of course, > requires millions of bucks in marketing. At the same time, there > should be a press campaign in "Joe User's Home PC Magazine" saying > that "Ada in the Entreprise" is the next big thing. Pointy-haired > managers and apprentice programmers alike read this kind of magazine > religiously. > > Combined, these two actions would create the illusion that "everyone > uses Ada". As Sun and Java, and C++, have demonstrated, this illusion > becomes reality when sufficiently many people believe it. > -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm Send Replies To: m o d c @ a m o g c n i c . r "Face it ladies, its not the dress that makes you look fat. Its the FAT that makes you look fat." -- Al Bundy ======================================================================