Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid>]

Michael Feldman wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list,
> I've started to maintain it actively again.

Very good indeed.

> I don't want to pad the list
> with tools, compilers, libraries, etc., but rather to respond
> to the question "who is actually using Ada in industry?".

I suspect that this exclusion of the SW tool industry from the 
definition of "industry" may focus the list on the traditional Ada 
application areas -- military and aerospace -- and exclude small or 
start-up Ada adopters in other areas. This could reinforce 
prejudice against Ada in other areas and especially in the SW tools 
area.

I understand that a vendor of Ada compilers may be suspected of 
bias if the vendor chooses to write the compilers in Ada. But the 
same should not happen when a C compiler, or a language-neutral 
tool, is written in Ada. Moreover, I believe that the reputation of 
Java has been boosted by the fact that many tools for Java 
development are written in Java. Why should the same not be true 
for Ada? If SW tool projects were listed under their own heading -- 
perhaps as the last group -- they should not detract from the 
impact of the other projects on the list.

I admit that I am biased, as my own project (and that of at least 
one other company in the same area, that I know of) are SW tools 
and thus apparently not wanted on the list. Perhaps only large, 
expensive projects are wanted? In that case it would be clearer to 
say so.

-- 
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
       .      @       .