Re: No call for Ada (was Re: Announcing new scripting/prototyping

[Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com>]

Georg Bauhaus wrote:
 > Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com> wrote: : 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.
 >
 > I think Charles is an example project that has been started this way,
 >  though I can't speak for Matt. (And it is not without coordination.)
 >  AI 302 has now a reference implementation in the freeware CVS
 > repository at tigris.org. Can there be a more official sanction of a
 > volunteer effort(?) than by the ARG?
 >
"Success" in the sense of "Making Ada a much more highly visible
language and used in a much wider range of applications than is 
presently done." Not "Success" in the sense of "Here's a project that 
produced some kind of useful result"

I don't dispute that there are people who have made freeware that meets 
the second definition. I also won't dispute that there have been 
freeware projects that in and of themselves have grown into widespread 
apps (although I don't think Ada can yet point to something like that). 
I'm saying that with a relatively small Ada community, you're not going 
to see them all run out producing enough significant freeware - in 
particular, targeted to some coherent market - that is suddenly going to 
set the world on fire with a burning desire to use Ada.

I'm suggesting that if a coherent *strategy* was agreed to by the major 
players and some identifiable, growing market were to be targeted, then 
with some combination of Ada language features, Ada sanctioned 
libraries, Ada compiler products and probably some Ada freeware, you 
might see a realistic possibility of watching the language grow much 
better than it is doing at present.

MDC
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Marin David Condic
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