Re: Open Systems closed to Ada?

[mcsun!uknet!yorkohm!minster!mjl-b@uunet.uu.net]

In article <1992Nov26.015455.8009@fcom.cc.utah.edu> val@news.ccutah.edu (Val Ka
rtchner) writes:
>alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore) writes:
>: In article <EMERY.92Nov24173553@Dr_No.mitre.org> emery@Dr_No.mitre.org (Davi
d Emery) writes:
>: > My experience with the POSIX/C community is that they don't understand
>: > why anyone would program in anything other than C/C++, and they have
>: > no interest (bordering on active hostility) in anyone who does not toe
>: > their line.   (Think of it as "Software Fundamentalism" of the
>: > Ayatollah variety, and you won't be far wrong...)
>: 
>: This attitude runs rampant in Universities as well.
>: I hope we Ada advocates will be more tolerant when we rule the world.
>
>Which language is the "state religion" that bans all other religions from
>its state?

I guess you're trying to implicate Ada here and contrast it with C (or
perhaps C++). Ada doesn't ban other languages -- there is still a lot of
effort going on to interface Ada to other systems and lnaguages. In general,
the problems don't actually come from Ada, but from poor specification in
other languages, notably C.

>Which language is simply the majority "religion" while not
>being intolerant of others?

As someone else pointed out, many C interfaces use char * for everything and
then typecast to the type they really mean later on. This makes for a poor
and error prone interface spec. -- as I found out when writing an Ada
binding to Berkeley sockets. Is this an example of C's great tolerance?

>Which one would you compare to the USA and
>which would you compare to Iran?  Which one rules by choice and which one
>will only rule by fiat?

Unfortunately, the motivations for choice are not as altruistic as you
perceive. Choice of computer languages, as in many other areas, has very
little to do with how good the language is technically. It has far more to
do with exposure, marketing and education.

Most of the choices are made at a superficial level -- after all, properly
evaluating the alternatives takes time, money and thought and making a
change from your current system takes a paradigm shift, retraining and
different and/or new ways of thinking.

How many companies properly perform this evaluation and are prepared to make
the changes for long term goals?

-- val@csulx.weber.edu ==\///= Ogden UT USA =|

Mat

| Mathew Lodge                      | "I don't care how many times they go    |
| mjl-b@minster.york.ac.uk          |  up-tiddly-up-up. They're still gits."  |
| Langwith College, Uni of York, UK |  -- Blackadder Goes Forth               |