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: 2004-04-14 04:41:19 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!newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!d9c68f36!not-for-mail Message-ID: <407D235B.2040004@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 References: <107m6cdmda7f639@corp.supernews.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 11:41:19 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.2.232 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net 1081942879 209.165.2.232 (Wed, 14 Apr 2004 04:41:19 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 04:41:19 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7082 Date: 2004-04-14T11:41:19+00:00 List-Id: We could thus conclude that the cause is hopeless. Ada (or any other new language without a major backer) can never be widely adopted. The Ada vendors ought to be looking to start marketing C++/Java compilers or other non-Ada products. The ARG ought to stop wasting everyone's time with language revisions. And we should all quit having any interest in promoting Ada, quit posting to this group and go find some more productive way to spend our time. ***OR*** We could conclude that it is an uphill battle, but one that has been won in the past. It requires some intelligence, creativity, cooperation by the major players, and above all else a *NEW STRATEGY* for how to get the language adopted in a more widespread way. Personally, I'd like to think that there *was* some hope that Ada could gain in market acceptance and - if not become the dominant language of the future - at least carve out a nice, healthy, growing segment of the software market. I don't think we get there by chalking it all up to luck - or believing that the bulk of software developers and/or managers are all idiots and/or greedy - or believing that its just a general, irrational hatred of Ada that is to blame. (All of which I've heard expressed in this forum by different individuals in one way or another.) I believe that Ada has enough going for it right now to make it worth while and that it is worth taking some kind of bold, new, exciting action to try to save it from a slow consignment to the dustbin of history. I'd personally be willing to put some time into making something happen. I think that's true of other Ada fans. I just don't think that random, uncoordinated, volunteer, freeware without any official sanction or direction or strategy is going to happen in a way that stands a chance of succeeding. If the major players were willing to devise a new strategy and say "Here's where we want to go and here's what we want to do and here's what you can do to help..." I think it could be made to work. The alternative is to give up. If you really feel its that hopeless, why bother with *any* effort relating to Ada at all? MDC Randy Brukardt wrote: > > It's worse than that, really. If you are hoping to make money from your > niche, you also have to find one that is either too small for interest by > the mainstream (which is why cellphones won't work) or just plain > overlooked. Plus it has to take small enough effort in order to be viable > for the tiny number of participants. Because if you find a niche which fails > any of these criteria, either the big players will move into it (and it > rarely matters who is there first, it is who is there first with deep > pockets), or it won't be large enough to provide the revenue needed to > sustain it, or it simply will be too big a project and it will never get > finished. > > There's been a number of examples of each in past Ada projects. The only way > an Ada anything could be successful would be for the niche to remain > overlooked long enough for Ada to be firmly entrenched. And that (of course) > requires luck, as there is no way to predict whether bigger players will > want to play in your niche at the outset. > > Randy. > > > > -- ====================================================================== 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 ======================================================================