Re: Feasibility of using Ada in new development

[Adrian Hoe <AdrianHoe@nowhere.com>]

Robert Law wrote:
> I would like to start by saying my message is not an attempt to start
> a flame war or anything like that.
> 
> I've been programming for years using everything from COBOL, RPG, C,
> Java, PHP, etc.  I've written a number of business applications,
> usually accounting ones.  (That's the advantage of having more than
> twenty years of experience.)  I'm at the point in my life where I want
> to pursue a dream I've had for years of having my own software
> development company, basically a VAR or ISV.
> 
> I want to use a language that meets the following criteria:
> 
> 1. It must be reliable.
> 2. It must be supported.
> 3. It must be usuable to develop applications in a graphical
> environment.  Basically Motif, GTK, or KDE.
> 4. It must be usuable to develop programs used via a browser. 
> 5. It must be able to interface with relational databases either
> through a standard interface or ODBC.
> 6. It would be nice if it was somewhat object oriented.  I'm not an
> object oriented purist, but it does have some nice features.  I
> especially like its automatic garbage collection of no lonter used
> variable.
> 
> I don't care much whether or not there are millions of programmers
> that know how to use it.  Any programmer worth their salt would be
> willing to learn and become proficient in a new language.
> 
> I do want it to be a language that is efficient yet doesn't give you a
> rope with a noose or a loaded, cocked, gun when you use it.
> 
> You can see that I'm leary of C and C++.  I have used them, and
> continue to use them, but I'm not at all sure that I want to use them
> to develop business applicatons.  I'm tired of reading about buffer
> overflows.
> 
> I have played around somewhat with Ada but by no means am I an expert.
>  I'm concerned that Ada may be starting to fade into obscurity.  If I
> get my company going (I know its a BIG if), I want to use the language
> for years and not chase after every silver bullet that comes along.
> 
> I'm interested in your comments and ideas, especially about Ada being
> able to meet my requirements.
> 
> Thanks,
> Robert Law



Hi Robert,

I got extremely excited when I read about your post. I think my 
experience with my company (I run my own companies) is very well suited 
in your case. What I can say in simple words is that your company is 
almost doing the same thing my company did almost ten years ago.

My company used many different computer languages ten years ago. Ranging 
from Clipper and Paradox to C/C++, Pascal, Fortran, COBOL and Delphi. We 
had problems to not only maintaining the software but with ourselves. 
Some of our staff came and left because of tedious and heavy workload. 
They must switch from one programming language to another when they 
maintained the software developed in many different languages.

Besides that, none of the languages used could satisfy our requirement. 
I proposed to switch to Ada. Today, we have only one single standard, 
and one single language. Sometimes, although we still use little bit of 
Perl, PHP and C, they are only a tiny fraction of entire picture. Less 
than 1% I can say.

My team has done a study based on our MRP/ERP software for furniture 
industries company in Malaysia. You can refer to my paper: "Software 
Development Re engineering" at my website: a d r i a n h o e . c o m. 
(Please remove the white spaces in the url)

I am not sure about point (4)  It must be usable to develop programs 
used via a browser. But I think someone is doing this and you can take a 
look at Ada Web Server (AWS) project.

For the rest of your points, my paper already explains in details.

I would say: "Go for Ada. You will not regret after another ten years."

If you need to discuss in length, you know where to get me. :)

Best regards,
-- 
Adrian Hoe (trying to infect another guy with Ada :))
m a i l b o x AT a d r i a n h o e . c o m