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: 2004-04-16 04:27:16 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!gnilink.net!bigfeed2.bellsouth.net!news.bellsouth.net!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!d9c68f36!not-for-mail Message-ID: <407FC30D.1070109@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: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 11:27:16 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 165.247.64.36 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net 1082114836 165.247.64.36 (Fri, 16 Apr 2004 04:27:16 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 04:27:16 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7199 Date: 2004-04-16T11:27:16+00:00 List-Id: Without commercial products being built in Ada, there is no revenue. Without revenue, nobody spends much to buy Ada from the vendors. The vendors eventually start following the revenue. Hobbyists & students are not going to keep the vendors interested. So Ada needs to target the commercial developers of software or its vendors eventually go off and write C++ compilers - or go out of business. That seems obvious, but its difficult to get any real consensus on how to do that or where to go with it. Ada may shine in some areas - large, long lived, high reliability systems where connections to ancillary products (GUI, database, netrwork, libraries, OS's, development/support tools) are a negligible issue. But those systems are few and far between. Other languages do better because they provide more leverage in some application domains - they come equipped with all the stuff someone needs to get their app done quicker. Ada needs to identify some reasonably large sector of the compiler-buying public and go way out of its way to make life as easy as possible for developers in that sector. We just won't win out if the best answer we have to someone who needs a GUI or a database or a network connection or some other non-general-programming need is to say "Well, you can always go build a binding to this C library...." We have to give them a *better* answer than they already get with C/C++/Java/VB/etc. or they have no incentive to want to go learn Ada and start using it. Pick a new market and start catering to it. MDC Richard Riehle wrote: > > If we want to revitalize interest in Ada, we must do so by creating good > systems > in Ada. I mean by this, good commercial software products. As we do so, > we > can make it known that the quality of these products is, in part, because we > used > Ada. At present, with the exception of ACT and RR Software, even the Ada > compiler vendors use other languages for their own internal software > projects. > > Ada can be popular. It is all uphill from here. Ada programmers of the > world > unite. You have nothing to lose but your C++. > > Richard Riehle > -- ====================================================================== 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 ======================================================================