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=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1e3f2eac5c026e3 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-12-17 22:55:10 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: rleif@rleif.com (Robert C. Leif) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: SIGada Conference Date: 17 Dec 2003 22:55:10 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <657ea3e3.0312172255.4869eae5@posting.google.com> References: <468D78E4EE5C6A4093A4C00F29DF513D04B82B08@VS2.hdi.tvcabo> NNTP-Posting-Host: 64.105.82.40 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1071730510 28932 127.0.0.1 (18 Dec 2003 06:55:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 06:55:10 +0000 (UTC) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3527 Date: 2003-12-17T22:55:10-08:00 List-Id: Since I am now the Chair of the Commercial Ada User's Group, CAUWEG, I would like to add some comments form the view of commercial utilization of Ada. Parenthetically, I hope that it is not the case that I am both the Chair and the only member of CAUWEG. There were 3 main threads at the meeting. The first was the obvious success of SPARK including its use for real-time. The second was the proposed object oriented additions to Ada; and the third was A# for the .Net environment. There is an obvious difference between those who are very interested in SPARK and those who are interested in object oriented extensions to Ada. The emphasis in SPARK is provable, efficient software which resides on the stack. The OO group wants to create better OO capabilities in Ada. Unfortunately, except for a talk by David Wheeler, there was no desire from the ARG or WG9 or mention of "to make programming in Ada easier" except for the OO paradigm. David Wheeler suggested adding a With and Use Clause. This would allow one to write the package name only once. Although I do not like the presence of a Use clause at the beginning of a package; I, at least, favor efficient sinning. I would complement this with a With and Renames Clause. With D renames A.B.C.D; Of even greater significance is the omission of the GNAT 'img. The use of 'img saves keyboarding and should make the sources easier to read. I believe once SPARK includes the use of generics that can be instantiated at compile time and class wide dispatching that occurs at compile time, it will become a significant competitor to classic Ada. Parenthetically, SPARK presently allows one to mix SPARK and Ada. As for C#, I still believe that it is Ada's great hope. Unfortunately since it is being developed in an academic setting, the Air Force Academy; it has the characteristics of the university research product that it is. A# is a brilliant innovation, but its lack of the final touches needed for commercialization will greatly impede its present use. The install is complex and to my dismay representation specifications have not yet been implemented. I hope that some commercial group takes over this product and delivers it for our use. In a separate note, I will report on the XML section of the Birds of a feather on APIs. Bob Leif "Robert I. Eachus" wrote in message news:... SNIP > "Thanks for the compliment. But I think everyone should be aware that we > don't care whether or not a feature is "necessary." What we really > agonize about is how to make programming in Ada easier and make it more > likely that Ada programs will satisfy all the "ilities." SNIP>