Re: What's stopping you from using Ada for your next commercial project?

["Thomas Løcke" <tl@ada-dk.org>]

On 2011-03-09 23:04, Maciej Sobczak wrote:
> This is much different with GNAT, which is unfortunately so bug-ridden
> as to really slow down the development work. The difference is even
> more frustrating if we compare the kind of code that I used in these
> languages - that is, very advanced or even outright experimental code
> in C++ vs. tutorial-level examples in Ada.



This is most disheartening.

Maybe we would all have been better off, if Ada 2012 had instead been
named Ada 2021 and the next 10 years spent on making current Ada
compilers actually support Ada 95 and Ada 2005 features without error.

Why add a bunch of new features, if the old ones still aren't fully
operational?



> What are the alternatives for small companies that want to use Ada?
> I don't know, really. I have approached Aonix (now Atego), but they
> have apparently frozen 15 years ago and stopped responding when I
> mentioned that I need Ada 2005 features. Rational is out of question
> if its price range is as described in another post. SofCheck might be
> a viable solution - but then the price difference (reminder: g++ costs
> 0$) is another factor to take into account.



My Ada skills are currently not at a level where I've experienced any of
these problems, but since I do plan on bringing Ada into my business and
I am slowly learning more and more about Ada, chances are that I too
will run into the sort of issues you've described here, sooner or later.

Ada might be an awesome language, but what does that help if the
compilers aren't working as advertized?

I'm honestly feeling a bit depressed after reading your post Maciej, and
to make matters worse, it just started raining and I have to spend the
entire day hacking PHP. On the other hand I'm also energized by the fact
that there are skilled people like you in the Ada community - people
that push the envelope.

:o)

-- 
Thomas L�cke

Email: tl at ada-dk.org
Web: http//:ada-dk.org
http://identi.ca/thomaslocke