From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 2002:a6b:af1e:: with SMTP id y30-v6mr909080ioe.7.1526480831546; Wed, 16 May 2018 07:27:11 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:a9d:5191:: with SMTP id y17-v6mr51892otg.12.1526480831351; Wed, 16 May 2018 07:27:11 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!newsreader5.netcologne.de!news.netcologne.de!peer03.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer03.am4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!peer01.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!v8-v6no1037746itc.0!news-out.google.com!f20-v6ni5232itd.0!nntp.google.com!u74-v6no1040913itb.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Wed, 16 May 2018 07:27:11 -0700 (PDT) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=47.185.233.194; posting-account=zwxLlwoAAAChLBU7oraRzNDnqQYkYbpo NNTP-Posting-Host: 47.185.233.194 User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <6420bab2-0aef-4d36-b978-525e4de45e7e@googlegroups.com> Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?meaningfully=2Fcompellingly_=E2=80=9Cadvertising=E2=80=9D_Ada_on_S?= =?UTF-8?Q?tackOverflow?= From: "Dan'l Miller" Injection-Date: Wed, 16 May 2018 14:27:11 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Received-Bytes: 4366 X-Received-Body-CRC: 968047813 Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:52369 Date: 2018-05-16T07:27:11-07:00 List-Id: One thing to help Ada =E2=80=9Ccross the chasm=E2=80=9D would be for each o= f the how-can-I-do-this-in-Ada questions posted here on c.l.a to also be po= sted in StackOverflow with (at least) the tag Ada. Of course, there does e= xist some overlap of participants here on c.l.a with Ada participants in St= ackOverflow, but conversely there do exist some StackOverflow users who are= knowledgable about Ada (or are genuinely-open-mindedly curious about Ada t= o have already explored Ada) who never or rarely visit c.l.a. But the A#1 primary goal to accomplish regarding the posting of juicy/revea= ling questions about Ada code is for strangers who are full-fledged Ada-hat= er and Ada-agnostic and what-is-this-Ada-that-I-have-never-heard-of people = to see actual Ada code that is beautiful and expressive and accomplishing r= eal-world goals, reacting with: 1) =E2=80=9COh! Ada can do =E2=80=A2that=E2=80=A2?! =E2=80=A2That=E2=80= =A2 easily? =E2=80=A2That=E2=80=A2 correctly?=E2=80=9D and 2) =E2=80=9COh! That is a whole lot more readable/safer/elegant in Ada tha= n it would have been in C++ OO, in C++ metatemplate programming, in C, or i= n Java.=E2=80=9D and 3) =E2=80=9CHmmmmmmmm. Maybe I ought to try to learn Ada a little bit (at = least enough to participate meaningfully in this StackOverflow question).= =E2=80=9D Of course, there is far less toleration over at StackOverflow for some of t= he lengthy free-wheeling debates that we have here at c.l.a, so questions &= answers & comments over there should be a little more nose-to-the-grindsto= ne pedagogical=E2=80=94fully mindful of StackOverflow's stern moderation. Btw, I am not sure that topics that really get c.l.a's blood pumping (e.g.,= some corner case in Ada tasking; this-way-of-writing-Ada versus that-way-o= f-writing-Ada intense-conviction purist culture-dominance battles) are topi= cs that would attract people to Ada over on StackOverflow (as opposed to sc= are them away from Ada). Also, some dirty-laundry nits about potential mis= takes in the ARM might always(!) be better here than over at StackOverflow. But many of the let's-have-c.l.a.-do-my-homework-for-me category of questio= ns probably should be cross-posted (in reworked StackOverflow-esque format)= over at StackOverflow with (at least) the tag Ada to expand the size of th= e Ada-education audience to the wider population (and to StackOverflow's se= emingly higher-up search results via search engines). Plus the more times Ada is meaningfully mentioned in technical contexts on = the WWW, the higher Ada that scores (directly or indirectly) on those peren= nial rankings of programming languages. A quantifiable measure of success = in this campaign would be measured by Ada moving up at least one position i= n any one (or all) of these popularity-of-programming-languages rankings th= at are always coming out (with usually C, Java, C++, and Javascript among t= he top positions in the ranking). The goal is not to move Ada to the top f= ive positions; the goal is move Ada from, say, position #22 to position #18= .