Re: Isn't this in favour of Ada??

[Adrien Plisson <aplisson-news@stochastique.net>]

Dan McLeran wrote:
> I don't think one can say that SW engineers use Ada and everyone else
> is a coder. I'm sure we all know of some skilled people who do not
> promote or use Ada. Having said that, I do believe that Ada is the best
> tool out there for the creation of software that does what the
> engineer/coder intended, which makes me wonder why programmers as a
> whole do not gravitate towards the best tools available. Is syntax that
> important? 

IMHO, it's not only a syntax problem. Ada may be the best tool 
available for some development task, but unfortunately NOT for ALL 
develoment tasks. for example, i often use Python: its interpreter 
allows me to enter an expresion and directly see the result, i can't 
do that with Ada.

every language has its own advantages and weaknesses, which does not 
make them useful for all tasks. some languages can be used in more 
contexts, while others are niche languages. the old adage "use the 
right tool for the right job" applies to software development too.

unfortunately, people confuse "the right tool" with "the ultimate 
tool" and tend to always use the same languages whatever the context, 
even if the language is clearly not apropriate for their tasks.

> I'm starting to wonder what's wrong with SW engineers. 

you should ask: what's wrong with computing in general ?

the computing field is directed by worst quality softwares running on 
poorly designed platforms inheriting from bad management decisions 
made 20 years ago. this is not the best house for breeding software 
engineers.

newcomers in the field can't tell the difference between the good and 
the bad because they have only been in contact with the bad. how many 
people i know have never touched anything else than a PC under Windows 
? they can't even imagine there could be something else !

as for life on earth, diversity is the key: diversity is disappearing, 
leaving only consanguine degenerates.

 > [...]
 > Do SW engineers not feel the same sense of
> responsibility for their products? In our (programming) community there
> seems to be alot of zealotry about the tools we use to build software.
> Since when does personal preference count for anything when the goal is
> a quality product that behaves as expected by the customer?

not every software engineer has to write safety critical softwares, so 
people tend to minimize the importance of product quality (generally 
to maximise profit). if software quality had an impact on engineers 
life (i mean, revenue), they would take it more seriously.

-- 
rien