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From: "Dave Smith" <dksmith@traveller.com>
Subject: Ada callable from Visual Basic?
Date: 1997/10/19
Message-ID: <62calr$hsk$1@tsunami.traveller.com>#1/1
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Organization: Leda Software
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-10-19T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Fundamental question first, in case you don't want to read the whole
post:

    Assuming well organized Ada software, with "business" objects
    separated from "view" (GUI) objects, is it feasible/cost-effective
    to replace a Motif GUI w/ a Win32 one using a mainstream RAD
    tool such as Visual Basic?

======

My question is loaded, so I'll try to give a little background:

I'm a scared developer.  I have seven years Ada experience.  As I
read Sunday's paper, I find week after week that everyone wants
Microsoft developers (yes, we're talking defense contractors here),
and I'm scared to death that I'll have to move to C++/Java for the
simple reason that no one does Ada anymore.  BTW, I'm *not*
scared to learn new things - I already know C++, and I prefer Ada.

I'm not in a financial situation that I can stick with Ada b/c it's a
superior
language (I have to feed my family).  However, I do not want to throw
the proverbial baby out w/ the bath water.  My real problem is NOT Ada
vs. C++.  Instead, it's the fact that I'm coding Motif/Xt by hand on an
expensive SG platform (whose processing power I don't need) while
my C++ buddies can use a sophisticated $300 tool (Visual Basic) to
build their GUIs in 1/10 the time on a cheap PC platform.

I know there are Ada bindings to Win32, but bindings a RAD tool do
not make (although bindings are still useful, since Win32 is not *only*
a GUI layer).  I know there are compiler vendors (Aonix) out there that
include Win32 GUI builders in their tools (prices not advertised,
multi-level price offerings, uh-oh!!!), BUT WHY??  Visual Basic is a
perfectly good GUI builder, and it will always have direct access to
the latest Win32 controls.  Ada vendors need to get out of the
mainstream GUI business.  To be fair,  Ada DOES need the ability to
build custom ActiveX controls in order to compete with Visual C++.

Ada compiler vendors need to ADVERTISE the fact that GUI
development is best left to a Visual Basic or Delphi, and concentrate
their marketing & development dollars on exposing C++'s
weaknesses.

To look at the problem from a different perspective, how sure am
I that Aonix's GUI builder will be alive 12 months from now? Not
very.  Visual Basic's?  Pretty sure.

Okay - how sure am I that 12 months from now, Ada is still going to
be a better language than C++?  Pretty sure.

Oops, sorry.  Let me step down from my stump, and meekly ask my
original question again:  How do I call Ada code from a Visual Basic
GUI?

Thanks,
Dave Smith