Re: If not Ada, what else...

[David Botton <david@botton.com>]

> Are you serious, is GNAT really the only implementation of Ada 2012?

Yes

> I see a huge list of Ada 95 implementations here:

Correct there was still some "mandate" money around and hopes for the old style long term support contracts to keep coming so they updated to '95. Less than a handful had enough business to justify 2005 (not sure how many even completely updated) and AdaCore already managed to leverage most of the leftover Ada market post 95 so there was little reason for vendors to keep going other than finish off existing contracts.

The way business is done has changed and none of the Ada vendors have managed to adapt, nor likely ever too. It takes a lot of humility to be nimble enough to make things work in any business especially today and takes even more humility to cultivate a language community without a "mandate" or google budget. The Ada world has never been known for that trait (but there are/have been a few good men)... (Oh my if I had a dollar for every snort...)

> I know some of those vendors are still selling product but I don't know
> that they've been updated for Ada 2012.  I don't see what's so difficult
> about it if customers are asking for it--the changes are not that large.

Vendors are not aligned with the current markets and trends, so there is no incentive for updates as they can't make money using the old models. AdaCore still has some life in it by leveraging the continued work of the open source communities with their own additions (even if not fully appreciating the contributions of the open source community by publishing a GPL runtime virus version in the fake guise of an open source developer edition, but as I've said many times they do contribute back to the FSF, so while they are not heroes, but they are not villains by any means either).