Re: Improving Ada's image - Was: 7E7 Flight Controls Electronics

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

Brian May wrote:
> I don't think so...
> 
> You are comparing an incredibly poorly designed, poorly written,
> insecure application written in C (I assume), with presumably a
> properly designed and written application in Ada.
> 
> To conclude that the second one is better then the first because of
> the choice of language is a bit misleading IMHO. In fact, my guess is
> a number of the security flaws in Outlook would also occur in Ada.
> eg. look at the JavaScript related security issues.
> 

You are missing the point. I'm not comparing Outlook to a theoretical 
Ada-Outlook. Outlook is merely an example of a type of app that someone 
might imagine a better way of doing. Its an 
e-mail/news-reader/address-book and probably a few other things as well. 
It has weaknesses at a conceptual level that someone might be able to 
dream up a better way of doing. (Like not having it try to do all these 
different jobs all in the same package)


> 
> Do you load these units at compile time, start-up time (when
> application starts), or on demand (eg. when user selects address
> book)?
> 
> Loading units at compile time is fast and efficient as far as the user
> is concerned, but means recompiling for adding a new unit. The other
> options are more flexible as far as the user is concerned, but may
> result in slower execution while the units load and initialize, and
> may require more overhead to keep track of the different units at
> run-time.

Now you're running off and designing it without really knowing what to 
design. Start with a list: "What I don't like about the way Office does 
what it does..." When you get done with that list, start another list: 
"The capabilities, features, functions, options, etc. that I would put 
into a similar app if I was the Product Manager for Outlook..." When 
you've done that, you're a considerable step closer to deciding if it is 
going to be one monolithic app or an install-time-configurable app or a 
half a dozen independent apps.

In between the lists and deciding what the app(s) should generally look 
like, it might be a good idea to do a little "Marketing Survey" to try 
to see if your concepts of what is wrong with Outlook and what you'd 
like to see in an alternative are things that are generally shared by 
enough of the rest of the world to make sure you're not trying to build 
an app nobody wants.

MDC


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Marin David Condic
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