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From: "Chris Miller" <chrismil@ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Re: fyi, "Cool", a new language.
Date: 1999/02/18
Message-ID: <7agqd4$3qh$1@reader1.reader.news.ozemail.net>#1/1
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References: <7a5u4s$a14@drn.newsguy.com> <36C9CB8F.1BCC2127@lmco.com>
 <7adt00$653$1@cf01.edf.fr>
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Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1999-02-18T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Pascal Obry wrote in message <7adt00$653$1@cf01.edf.fr>...
>
>steve quinlan a �crit dans le message <36C9CB8F.1BCC2127@lmco.com>...
>>mike@world.nospam.com wrote:
>>
>>> MS is comming up with a new language called "Cool".  read all about it:
>>
>>God help us.
>
>No read the paper, Cool is the commercial name for Microsoft Ada
technology.
>
>Well, anyway it is something a friend of mine told me.
>
>He would not have lie to me, would he :-) ?
>
>Pascal.
>
>
I know a lot of people will laugh at this but, IMHO, it would be eminently
sensible for Microsoft to adopt and run with Ada.

Consider :-

1. Sun owns Java and, try as they may, there is nothing Microsoft can do
about it. They need an alternative.

2. Ada stands on it's technical merits, especially on large projects. Having
to separate out the package spec from the body *works* with large groups of
people. It would help them produce better code.

3. They have taken a bit of a PR battering over squashing Netscape so being
seen to support the language developed by Uncle Sam wouldn't do Bill any
harm.

4. Ada is mature with a published and recognised standard - they could claim
that they don't own it. Like TCP/IP, SMTP etc. it is not owned by any single
company.

5. Ada 95 is easily fixable - just add garbage collection, a standard
library (lists, trees, sort routines, hashing routines etc), and a more
readable LRM. And "pragma (Microsoft)" opens up interesting possibilities !.

6. They could easily provide a decent Ada interface to the Windows RTL. Ada
windows programming then becomes a reality.

7. Ada has multitasking built in. Also the distributed section is ahead of
it's time. (I am very impressed with GLADE).

8. It wouldn't be that hard for MS to produce a "Visual Ada" with all usual
bells & whistles. They could flog it  with the normal smoke & mirrors and
make a quid. The ASIS people have already done some of the hard work for
them anyway. Microsoft are good at "refining" other peoples work.


I am not betting that this will happen - Sun wouldn't let Java go without a
fight - but it makes an interesting suggestion.

Chris Miller
chrismil@ozemail.com.au