Decline?

[Thomas <thomas@kenshi.dk>]

Today I stumbled on this fairly old (2003) paper on the merits (or lack 
of!) of Ada.

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/03.reports/pdf/03tn021.pdf

As I'm a complete beginner in Ada, I have no way of knowing if this 
paper is spot on, or way off.

It doesn't really matter very much to me, as I'm just learnig Ada for 
fun (and so far I'm having lots of fun!), but should I ever decide to 
use it for any "real" projects, it's of course worth considering if the 
author, Jim Smith, is right in his bleak conclusion:

-----
Program managers considering the technical and programmatic risks of 
incorporating specific programming languages in software-intensive 
systems could reasonably -conclude that Ada is a programming language 
with a dubious or nonexistent future.
-----

Sounds awfully dark and gloomy eh?

So, what's your take on this? Is Ada still an important player? Did Ada 
2005 change anything? Is all well and good in the Ada world, and Jim 
Smith is simply blowing smoke out of his blowhole?

Sincerely,
Thomas