Popularizing Ada

Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, Diane "I've looked at things from both sides now"
Wilson wrote:

> No, you can't put all Jesus crap aside.

I dunno, He lasted what, 30, 33, maybe 39 years tops
before Pilate decided He'd make a better lawn ornament?

You wouldn't end up with all that big a pile of scats.

> Immaculate conception....  who does Lucas think he's
> kidding, anyway?

At least Lucas doesn't claim Immaculate Digestion, so
you've still got all that raw material for improving
the fertility of the soil in the Garden.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"Usenet is the ephemera of the ephemera, the veritable words written on dust,
the phoenix of speech, the sic transit to the gloria mundi.  My name is
Ozymandus, king.  Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
 -- Doug Merritt doug@netcom.com
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, mlt wrote:

> thus did i give up on the idea of becoming a programmer in
> disgust

I like "programmer in disgust" -- another name for any one
of the myriad of Linux fans and contributors working hard
to put Bill Gates back on skid row where his corrupted
software selling bastard booty belongs.

[Pluralized, it would also make a pretty fair start on a
band name.]


===== random archive quality quote =====
"Life: it's been hit or miss since I lost the manual." -- Michael Bonnell
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

 serve a better quality of
peeled, deveined shrimp over ice at the monthly FAQ-review
meetings (quality control are our middle names) with the
budget savings from having our raw material already up
toward the top of the gravity well.

X Industries (TINXI) could also put the ozone layer back
where it belongs, instead of precipitating it out with
anvil support mission launch waste gasses once a week.

===== random archive quality quote =====
(member, "lonely old geezers with lap cats" posting cabel)
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, "steve" <sebisho@ibm.net> wrote:

> Days of heat, days of light,
> days of murder in the night.

Fooey.  Phoenix just had a cold wave so severe that daytime
temperatures were limited to 78F and the nights actually got
down to 60F, barely above absolute zero (which by statute in
Phoenix is set at 45F).

Hospital emergency rooms were staffing up for an expected
wave of frostbite victims.

Senior citizens were housebound by cars made inoperable due
to burst radiators and ruined battteries.

Cotton farmers were bemoaning the anticipated loss of their
crops due to the biting cold and the wind chill factor.

Owners of the city's many strip bars wept as crowd pleasing
pulsating naked writhing sweaty bodies were replaced by
shivering ecdysiasts in thermal underware, fur coats, and
mukluks, per long standing union contracts.

Don't tell me about Texas' paltry troubles, Phoenix has
troubles of its own.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"I know I am only raising questions without answering them, but the answers
are not that easy, at least not until one has formulated the question better,"
 -- Jim Muller <jmuller@stardent.com>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

elp
classes; there's nothing _natural_ about it at all.  Jumping
to conclusions -- bad debating form.

> you ought to keep your silly childish opinions to
> yourselves and attend to the wisdom i so graciously cast
> before you like pearls before swine.

Flagrant use of a cliche, age-ism, self-advertising; you
lose a lot of auctorial bonus points here.

> perhaps if you all go off and discuss the matter quietly
> amongst yourselves, you may eventually attain
> enlightenment, albeit entirely by accident, not unlike a
> hundred monkeys gathered around a typewriter producing the
> works of Shakespeare.

Reality check -- when we go off by ourselves, it is to beat
upon cheap imitations of real drums, shoot beer from wide
mouth bottles, and practice self-abuse before an
appreciative audience.  No Real Man has any idea how to
type, though we do get pretty good at spanking monkeys.
Shakespeare who?

> now begone from my sight, pathetic mortals, before i am
> induced to wave my hand and destroy you all in a fit of
> celestial pique!

Yeah, yeah, but you'll be crying to have us back the next
time you get the urge to wear spandex in the rain.

Conclusion:

Well, we know you're not misandrist, you're Miss Tanner, the
artist formerly known as Gypsy, so column B is out.  You're
so demure and reticent trying to express your emotions on
the net that you couldn't sar a chasm with a hundred foot
bridge, so column A is out too.  I guess the only choice
remaining is that you left your travesty generator running
on auto-post again.

Happy to help.  By the way, take a look, do you think this
bagful of clues might have gone stale?  They have that old
sweaty gym sock smell of expensive French cheese.

===== random archive quality quote =====
Zwei Dinge sind unendlich - Das Universum und die menchliche Dummheit.
 -- Heiko W. Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
<condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:

> Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> caught on with any "mass market" appeal.

My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
mentality.

> The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> masses.

I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
a growing cadre of fanatic users".

> Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> out!  :-)

I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
source code multi-university grad school project for a
"cooperative programming in the large" class.

The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
lets them find out it is fun to drink.

Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:

> So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> this context?

Several ideas come immediately to mind:

"The Ada cure for the common OS"?
"The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
"The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
"The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
"AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
"The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
"Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?

I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.

===== random archive quality quote =====
We must not forget that these ridiculous and tyrannical laws were not imposed
from outside -- they were voted by the free agreement of all the interested
parties themselves -- and that their mores were even more austere and
puritanical than their laws.
  -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1838
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, Diane "I've looked at things from both sides now"
Wilson wrote:

> No, you can't put all Jesus crap aside.

I dunno, He lasted what, 30, 33, maybe 39 years tops
before Pilate decided He'd make a better lawn ornament?

You wouldn't end up with all that big a pile of scats.

> Immaculate conception....  who does Lucas think he's
> kidding, anyway?

At least Lucas doesn't claim Immaculate Digestion, so
you've still got all that raw material for improving
the fertility of the soil in the Garden.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"Usenet is the ephemera of the ephemera, the veritable words written on dust,
the phoenix of speech, the sic transit to the gloria mundi.  My name is
Ozymandus, king.  Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
 -- Doug Merritt doug@netcom.com
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, mlt wrote:

> thus did i give up on the idea of becoming a programmer in
> disgust

I like "programmer in disgust" -- another name for any one
of the myriad of Linux fans and contributors working hard
to put Bill Gates back on skid row where his corrupted
software selling bastard booty belongs.

[Pluralized, it would also make a pretty fair start on a
band name.]


===== random archive quality quote =====
"Life: it's been hit or miss since I lost the manual." -- Michael Bonnell
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

 serve a better quality of
peeled, deveined shrimp over ice at the monthly FAQ-review
meetings (quality control are our middle names) with the
budget savings from having our raw material already up
toward the top of the gravity well.

X Industries (TINXI) could also put the ozone layer back
where it belongs, instead of precipitating it out with
anvil support mission launch waste gasses once a week.

===== random archive quality quote =====
(member, "lonely old geezers with lap cats" posting cabel)
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, "steve" <sebisho@ibm.net> wrote:

> Days of heat, days of light,
> days of murder in the night.

Fooey.  Phoenix just had a cold wave so severe that daytime
temperatures were limited to 78F and the nights actually got
down to 60F, barely above absolute zero (which by statute in
Phoenix is set at 45F).

Hospital emergency rooms were staffing up for an expected
wave of frostbite victims.

Senior citizens were housebound by cars made inoperable due
to burst radiators and ruined battteries.

Cotton farmers were bemoaning the anticipated loss of their
crops due to the biting cold and the wind chill factor.

Owners of the city's many strip bars wept as crowd pleasing
pulsating naked writhing sweaty bodies were replaced by
shivering ecdysiasts in thermal underware, fur coats, and
mukluks, per long standing union contracts.

Don't tell me about Texas' paltry troubles, Phoenix has
troubles of its own.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"I know I am only raising questions without answering them, but the answers
are not that easy, at least not until one has formulated the question better,"
 -- Jim Muller <jmuller@stardent.com>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

elp
classes; there's nothing _natural_ about it at all.  Jumping
to conclusions -- bad debating form.

> you ought to keep your silly childish opinions to
> yourselves and attend to the wisdom i so graciously cast
> before you like pearls before swine.

Flagrant use of a cliche, age-ism, self-advertising; you
lose a lot of auctorial bonus points here.

> perhaps if you all go off and discuss the matter quietly
> amongst yourselves, you may eventually attain
> enlightenment, albeit entirely by accident, not unlike a
> hundred monkeys gathered around a typewriter producing the
> works of Shakespeare.

Reality check -- when we go off by ourselves, it is to beat
upon cheap imitations of real drums, shoot beer from wide
mouth bottles, and practice self-abuse before an
appreciative audience.  No Real Man has any idea how to
type, though we do get pretty good at spanking monkeys.
Shakespeare who?

> now begone from my sight, pathetic mortals, before i am
> induced to wave my hand and destroy you all in a fit of
> celestial pique!

Yeah, yeah, but you'll be crying to have us back the next
time you get the urge to wear spandex in the rain.

Conclusion:

Well, we know you're not misandrist, you're Miss Tanner, the
artist formerly known as Gypsy, so column B is out.  You're
so demure and reticent trying to express your emotions on
the net that you couldn't sar a chasm with a hundred foot
bridge, so column A is out too.  I guess the only choice
remaining is that you left your travesty generator running
on auto-post again.

Happy to help.  By the way, take a look, do you think this
bagful of clues might have gone stale?  They have that old
sweaty gym sock smell of expensive French cheese.

===== random archive quality quote =====
Zwei Dinge sind unendlich - Das Universum und die menchliche Dummheit.
 -- Heiko W. Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
<condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:

> Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> caught on with any "mass market" appeal.

My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
mentality.

> The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> masses.

I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
a growing cadre of fanatic users".

> Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> out!  :-)

I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
source code multi-university grad school project for a
"cooperative programming in the large" class.

The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
lets them find out it is fun to drink.

Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:

> So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> this context?

Several ideas come immediately to mind:

"The Ada cure for the common OS"?
"The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
"The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
"The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
"AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
"The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
"Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?

I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.

===== random archive quality quote =====
We must not forget that these ridiculous and tyrannical laws were not imposed
from outside -- they were voted by the free agreement of all the interested
parties themselves -- and that their mores were even more austere and
puritanical than their laws.
  -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1838
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, Diane "I've looked at things from both sides now"
Wilson wrote:

> No, you can't put all Jesus crap aside.

I dunno, He lasted what, 30, 33, maybe 39 years tops
before Pilate decided He'd make a better lawn ornament?

You wouldn't end up with all that big a pile of scats.

> Immaculate conception....  who does Lucas think he's
> kidding, anyway?

At least Lucas doesn't claim Immaculate Digestion, so
you've still got all that raw material for improving
the fertility of the soil in the Garden.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"Usenet is the ephemera of the ephemera, the veritable words written on dust,
the phoenix of speech, the sic transit to the gloria mundi.  My name is
Ozymandus, king.  Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
 -- Doug Merritt doug@netcom.com
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, mlt wrote:

> thus did i give up on the idea of becoming a programmer in
> disgust

I like "programmer in disgust" -- another name for any one
of the myriad of Linux fans and contributors working hard
to put Bill Gates back on skid row where his corrupted
software selling bastard booty belongs.

[Pluralized, it would also make a pretty fair start on a
band name.]


===== random archive quality quote =====
"Life: it's been hit or miss since I lost the manual." -- Michael Bonnell
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

 serve a better quality of
peeled, deveined shrimp over ice at the monthly FAQ-review
meetings (quality control are our middle names) with the
budget savings from having our raw material already up
toward the top of the gravity well.

X Industries (TINXI) could also put the ozone layer back
where it belongs, instead of precipitating it out with
anvil support mission launch waste gasses once a week.

===== random archive quality quote =====
(member, "lonely old geezers with lap cats" posting cabel)
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, "steve" <sebisho@ibm.net> wrote:

> Days of heat, days of light,
> days of murder in the night.

Fooey.  Phoenix just had a cold wave so severe that daytime
temperatures were limited to 78F and the nights actually got
down to 60F, barely above absolute zero (which by statute in
Phoenix is set at 45F).

Hospital emergency rooms were staffing up for an expected
wave of frostbite victims.

Senior citizens were housebound by cars made inoperable due
to burst radiators and ruined battteries.

Cotton farmers were bemoaning the anticipated loss of their
crops due to the biting cold and the wind chill factor.

Owners of the city's many strip bars wept as crowd pleasing
pulsating naked writhing sweaty bodies were replaced by
shivering ecdysiasts in thermal underware, fur coats, and
mukluks, per long standing union contracts.

Don't tell me about Texas' paltry troubles, Phoenix has
troubles of its own.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"I know I am only raising questions without answering them, but the answers
are not that easy, at least not until one has formulated the question better,"
 -- Jim Muller <jmuller@stardent.com>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

elp
classes; there's nothing _natural_ about it at all.  Jumping
to conclusions -- bad debating form.

> you ought to keep your silly childish opinions to
> yourselves and attend to the wisdom i so graciously cast
> before you like pearls before swine.

Flagrant use of a cliche, age-ism, self-advertising; you
lose a lot of auctorial bonus points here.

> perhaps if you all go off and discuss the matter quietly
> amongst yourselves, you may eventually attain
> enlightenment, albeit entirely by accident, not unlike a
> hundred monkeys gathered around a typewriter producing the
> works of Shakespeare.

Reality check -- when we go off by ourselves, it is to beat
upon cheap imitations of real drums, shoot beer from wide
mouth bottles, and practice self-abuse before an
appreciative audience.  No Real Man has any idea how to
type, though we do get pretty good at spanking monkeys.
Shakespeare who?

> now begone from my sight, pathetic mortals, before i am
> induced to wave my hand and destroy you all in a fit of
> celestial pique!

Yeah, yeah, but you'll be crying to have us back the next
time you get the urge to wear spandex in the rain.

Conclusion:

Well, we know you're not misandrist, you're Miss Tanner, the
artist formerly known as Gypsy, so column B is out.  You're
so demure and reticent trying to express your emotions on
the net that you couldn't sar a chasm with a hundred foot
bridge, so column A is out too.  I guess the only choice
remaining is that you left your travesty generator running
on auto-post again.

Happy to help.  By the way, take a look, do you think this
bagful of clues might have gone stale?  They have that old
sweaty gym sock smell of expensive French cheese.

===== random archive quality quote =====
Zwei Dinge sind unendlich - Das Universum und die menchliche Dummheit.
 -- Heiko W. Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
<condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:

> Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> caught on with any "mass market" appeal.

My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
mentality.

> The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> masses.

I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
a growing cadre of fanatic users".

> Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> out!  :-)

I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
source code multi-university grad school project for a
"cooperative programming in the large" class.

The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
lets them find out it is fun to drink.

Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:

> So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> this context?

Several ideas come immediately to mind:

"The Ada cure for the common OS"?
"The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
"The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
"The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
"AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
"The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
"Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?

I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.

===== random archive quality quote =====
We must not forget that these ridiculous and tyrannical laws were not imposed
from outside -- they were voted by the free agreement of all the interested
parties themselves -- and that their mores were even more austere and
puritanical than their laws.
  -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1838
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, Diane "I've looked at things from both sides now"
Wilson wrote:

> No, you can't put all Jesus crap aside.

I dunno, He lasted what, 30, 33, maybe 39 years tops
before Pilate decided He'd make a better lawn ornament?

You wouldn't end up with all that big a pile of scats.

> Immaculate conception....  who does Lucas think he's
> kidding, anyway?

At least Lucas doesn't claim Immaculate Digestion, so
you've still got all that raw material for improving
the fertility of the soil in the Garden.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"Usenet is the ephemera of the ephemera, the veritable words written on dust,
the phoenix of speech, the sic transit to the gloria mundi.  My name is
Ozymandus, king.  Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
 -- Doug Merritt doug@netcom.com
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, mlt wrote:

> thus did i give up on the idea of becoming a programmer in
> disgust

I like "programmer in disgust" -- another name for any one
of the myriad of Linux fans and contributors working hard
to put Bill Gates back on skid row where his corrupted
software selling bastard booty belongs.

[Pluralized, it would also make a pretty fair start on a
band name.]


===== random archive quality quote =====
"Life: it's been hit or miss since I lost the manual." -- Michael Bonnell
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

 serve a better quality of
peeled, deveined shrimp over ice at the monthly FAQ-review
meetings (quality control are our middle names) with the
budget savings from having our raw material already up
toward the top of the gravity well.

X Industries (TINXI) could also put the ozone layer back
where it belongs, instead of precipitating it out with
anvil support mission launch waste gasses once a week.

===== random archive quality quote =====
(member, "lonely old geezers with lap cats" posting cabel)
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, "steve" <sebisho@ibm.net> wrote:

> Days of heat, days of light,
> days of murder in the night.

Fooey.  Phoenix just had a cold wave so severe that daytime
temperatures were limited to 78F and the nights actually got
down to 60F, barely above absolute zero (which by statute in
Phoenix is set at 45F).

Hospital emergency rooms were staffing up for an expected
wave of frostbite victims.

Senior citizens were housebound by cars made inoperable due
to burst radiators and ruined battteries.

Cotton farmers were bemoaning the anticipated loss of their
crops due to the biting cold and the wind chill factor.

Owners of the city's many strip bars wept as crowd pleasing
pulsating naked writhing sweaty bodies were replaced by
shivering ecdysiasts in thermal underware, fur coats, and
mukluks, per long standing union contracts.

Don't tell me about Texas' paltry troubles, Phoenix has
troubles of its own.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"I know I am only raising questions without answering them, but the answers
are not that easy, at least not until one has formulated the question better,"
 -- Jim Muller <jmuller@stardent.com>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

elp
classes; there's nothing _natural_ about it at all.  Jumping
to conclusions -- bad debating form.

> you ought to keep your silly childish opinions to
> yourselves and attend to the wisdom i so graciously cast
> before you like pearls before swine.

Flagrant use of a cliche, age-ism, self-advertising; you
lose a lot of auctorial bonus points here.

> perhaps if you all go off and discuss the matter quietly
> amongst yourselves, you may eventually attain
> enlightenment, albeit entirely by accident, not unlike a
> hundred monkeys gathered around a typewriter producing the
> works of Shakespeare.

Reality check -- when we go off by ourselves, it is to beat
upon cheap imitations of real drums, shoot beer from wide
mouth bottles, and practice self-abuse before an
appreciative audience.  No Real Man has any idea how to
type, though we do get pretty good at spanking monkeys.
Shakespeare who?

> now begone from my sight, pathetic mortals, before i am
> induced to wave my hand and destroy you all in a fit of
> celestial pique!

Yeah, yeah, but you'll be crying to have us back the next
time you get the urge to wear spandex in the rain.

Conclusion:

Well, we know you're not misandrist, you're Miss Tanner, the
artist formerly known as Gypsy, so column B is out.  You're
so demure and reticent trying to express your emotions on
the net that you couldn't sar a chasm with a hundred foot
bridge, so column A is out too.  I guess the only choice
remaining is that you left your travesty generator running
on auto-post again.

Happy to help.  By the way, take a look, do you think this
bagful of clues might have gone stale?  They have that old
sweaty gym sock smell of expensive French cheese.

===== random archive quality quote =====
Zwei Dinge sind unendlich - Das Universum und die menchliche Dummheit.
 -- Heiko W. Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, Diane "I've looked at things from both sides now"
Wilson wrote:

> No, you can't put all Jesus crap aside.

I dunno, He lasted what, 30, 33, maybe 39 years tops
before Pilate decided He'd make a better lawn ornament?

You wouldn't end up with all that big a pile of scats.

> Immaculate conception....  who does Lucas think he's
> kidding, anyway?

At least Lucas doesn't claim Immaculate Digestion, so
you've still got all that raw material for improving
the fertility of the soil in the Garden.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"Usenet is the ephemera of the ephemera, the veritable words written on dust,
the phoenix of speech, the sic transit to the gloria mundi.  My name is
Ozymandus, king.  Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
 -- Doug Merritt doug@netcom.com
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, mlt wrote:

> thus did i give up on the idea of becoming a programmer in
> disgust

I like "programmer in disgust" -- another name for any one
of the myriad of Linux fans and contributors working hard
to put Bill Gates back on skid row where his corrupted
software selling bastard booty belongs.

[Pluralized, it would also make a pretty fair start on a
band name.]


===== random archive quality quote =====
"Life: it's been hit or miss since I lost the manual." -- Michael Bonnell
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

 serve a better quality of
peeled, deveined shrimp over ice at the monthly FAQ-review
meetings (quality control are our middle names) with the
budget savings from having our raw material already up
toward the top of the gravity well.

X Industries (TINXI) could also put the ozone layer back
where it belongs, instead of precipitating it out with
anvil support mission launch waste gasses once a week.

===== random archive quality quote =====
(member, "lonely old geezers with lap cats" posting cabel)
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, "steve" <sebisho@ibm.net> wrote:

> Days of heat, days of light,
> days of murder in the night.

Fooey.  Phoenix just had a cold wave so severe that daytime
temperatures were limited to 78F and the nights actually got
down to 60F, barely above absolute zero (which by statute in
Phoenix is set at 45F).

Hospital emergency rooms were staffing up for an expected
wave of frostbite victims.

Senior citizens were housebound by cars made inoperable due
to burst radiators and ruined battteries.

Cotton farmers were bemoaning the anticipated loss of their
crops due to the biting cold and the wind chill factor.

Owners of the city's many strip bars wept as crowd pleasing
pulsating naked writhing sweaty bodies were replaced by
shivering ecdysiasts in thermal underware, fur coats, and
mukluks, per long standing union contracts.

Don't tell me about Texas' paltry troubles, Phoenix has
troubles of its own.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"I know I am only raising questions without answering them, but the answers
are not that easy, at least not until one has formulated the question better,"
 -- Jim Muller <jmuller@stardent.com>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

elp
classes; there's nothing _natural_ about it at all.  Jumping
to conclusions -- bad debating form.

> you ought to keep your silly childish opinions to
> yourselves and attend to the wisdom i so graciously cast
> before you like pearls before swine.

Flagrant use of a cliche, age-ism, self-advertising; you
lose a lot of auctorial bonus points here.

> perhaps if you all go off and discuss the matter quietly
> amongst yourselves, you may eventually attain
> enlightenment, albeit entirely by accident, not unlike a
> hundred monkeys gathered around a typewriter producing the
> works of Shakespeare.

Reality check -- when we go off by ourselves, it is to beat
upon cheap imitations of real drums, shoot beer from wide
mouth bottles, and practice self-abuse before an
appreciative audience.  No Real Man has any idea how to
type, though we do get pretty good at spanking monkeys.
Shakespeare who?

> now begone from my sight, pathetic mortals, before i am
> induced to wave my hand and destroy you all in a fit of
> celestial pique!

Yeah, yeah, but you'll be crying to have us back the next
time you get the urge to wear spandex in the rain.

Conclusion:

Well, we know you're not misandrist, you're Miss Tanner, the
artist formerly known as Gypsy, so column B is out.  You're
so demure and reticent trying to express your emotions on
the net that you couldn't sar a chasm with a hundred foot
bridge, so column A is out too.  I guess the only choice
remaining is that you left your travesty generator running
on auto-post again.

Happy to help.  By the way, take a look, do you think this
bagful of clues might have gone stale?  They have that old
sweaty gym sock smell of expensive French cheese.

===== random archive quality quote =====
Zwei Dinge sind unendlich - Das Universum und die menchliche Dummheit.
 -- Heiko W. Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
<condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:

> Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> caught on with any "mass market" appeal.

My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
mentality.

> The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> masses.

I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
a growing cadre of fanatic users".

> Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> out!  :-)

I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
source code multi-university grad school project for a
"cooperative programming in the large" class.

The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
lets them find out it is fun to drink.

Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:

> So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> this context?

Several ideas come immediately to mind:

"The Ada cure for the common OS"?
"The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
"The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
"The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
"AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
"The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
"Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?

I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.

===== random archive quality quote =====
We must not forget that these ridiculous and tyrannical laws were not imposed
from outside -- they were voted by the free agreement of all the interested
parties themselves -- and that their mores were even more austere and
puritanical than their laws.
  -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1838
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, Diane "I've looked at things from both sides now"
Wilson wrote:

> No, you can't put all Jesus crap aside.

I dunno, He lasted what, 30, 33, maybe 39 years tops
before Pilate decided He'd make a better lawn ornament?

You wouldn't end up with all that big a pile of scats.

> Immaculate conception....  who does Lucas think he's
> kidding, anyway?

At least Lucas doesn't claim Immaculate Digestion, so
you've still got all that raw material for improving
the fertility of the soil in the Garden.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"Usenet is the ephemera of the ephemera, the veritable words written on dust,
the phoenix of speech, the sic transit to the gloria mundi.  My name is
Ozymandus, king.  Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
 -- Doug Merritt doug@netcom.com
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, mlt wrote:

> thus did i give up on the idea of becoming a programmer in
> disgust

I like "programmer in disgust" -- another name for any one
of the myriad of Linux fans and contributors working hard
to put Bill Gates back on skid row where his corrupted
software selling bastard booty belongs.

[Pluralized, it would also make a pretty fair start on a
band name.]


===== random archive quality quote =====
"Life: it's been hit or miss since I lost the manual." -- Michael Bonnell
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

 serve a better quality of
peeled, deveined shrimp over ice at the monthly FAQ-review
meetings (quality control are our middle names) with the
budget savings from having our raw material already up
toward the top of the gravity well.

X Industries (TINXI) could also put the ozone layer back
where it belongs, instead of precipitating it out with
anvil support mission launch waste gasses once a week.

===== random archive quality quote =====
(member, "lonely old geezers with lap cats" posting cabel)
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread to which my posting methods will never add a
strand, "steve" <sebisho@ibm.net> wrote:

> Days of heat, days of light,
> days of murder in the night.

Fooey.  Phoenix just had a cold wave so severe that daytime
temperatures were limited to 78F and the nights actually got
down to 60F, barely above absolute zero (which by statute in
Phoenix is set at 45F).

Hospital emergency rooms were staffing up for an expected
wave of frostbite victims.

Senior citizens were housebound by cars made inoperable due
to burst radiators and ruined battteries.

Cotton farmers were bemoaning the anticipated loss of their
crops due to the biting cold and the wind chill factor.

Owners of the city's many strip bars wept as crowd pleasing
pulsating naked writhing sweaty bodies were replaced by
shivering ecdysiasts in thermal underware, fur coats, and
mukluks, per long standing union contracts.

Don't tell me about Texas' paltry troubles, Phoenix has
troubles of its own.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"I know I am only raising questions without answering them, but the answers
are not that easy, at least not until one has formulated the question better,"
 -- Jim Muller <jmuller@stardent.com>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

elp
classes; there's nothing _natural_ about it at all.  Jumping
to conclusions -- bad debating form.

> you ought to keep your silly childish opinions to
> yourselves and attend to the wisdom i so graciously cast
> before you like pearls before swine.

Flagrant use of a cliche, age-ism, self-advertising; you
lose a lot of auctorial bonus points here.

> perhaps if you all go off and discuss the matter quietly
> amongst yourselves, you may eventually attain
> enlightenment, albeit entirely by accident, not unlike a
> hundred monkeys gathered around a typewriter producing the
> works of Shakespeare.

Reality check -- when we go off by ourselves, it is to beat
upon cheap imitations of real drums, shoot beer from wide
mouth bottles, and practice self-abuse before an
appreciative audience.  No Real Man has any idea how to
type, though we do get pretty good at spanking monkeys.
Shakespeare who?

> now begone from my sight, pathetic mortals, before i am
> induced to wave my hand and destroy you all in a fit of
> celestial pique!

Yeah, yeah, but you'll be crying to have us back the next
time you get the urge to wear spandex in the rain.

Conclusion:

Well, we know you're not misandrist, you're Miss Tanner, the
artist formerly known as Gypsy, so column B is out.  You're
so demure and reticent trying to express your emotions on
the net that you couldn't sar a chasm with a hundred foot
bridge, so column A is out too.  I guess the only choice
remaining is that you left your travesty generator running
on auto-post again.

Happy to help.  By the way, take a look, do you think this
bagful of clues might have gone stale?  They have that old
sweaty gym sock smell of expensive French cheese.

===== random archive quality quote =====
Zwei Dinge sind unendlich - Das Universum und die menchliche Dummheit.
 -- Heiko W. Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org>
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
<condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:

> Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> caught on with any "mass market" appeal.

My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
mentality.

> The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> masses.

I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
a growing cadre of fanatic users".

> Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> out!  :-)

I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
source code multi-university grad school project for a
"cooperative programming in the large" class.

The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
lets them find out it is fun to drink.

Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:

> So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> this context?

Several ideas come immediately to mind:

"The Ada cure for the common OS"?
"The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
"The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
"The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
"AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
"The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
"Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?

I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.

===== random archive quality quote =====
We must not forget that these ridiculous and tyrannical laws were not imposed
from outside -- they were voted by the free agreement of all the interested
parties themselves -- and that their mores were even more austere and
puritanical than their laws.
  -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1838
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
<condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:

> Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> caught on with any "mass market" appeal.

My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
mentality.

> The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> masses.

I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
a growing cadre of fanatic users".

> Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> out!  :-)

I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
source code multi-university grad school project for a
"cooperative programming in the large" class.

The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
lets them find out it is fun to drink.

Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:

> So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> this context?

Several ideas come immediately to mind:

"The Ada cure for the common OS"?
"The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
"The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
"The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
"AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
"The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
"Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?

I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.

===== random archive quality quote =====
"Only the Objectivists have an answer to all our problems, and it's wrong."
  -- Hans Huettel
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Re: Popularizing Ada

[Kent Paul Dolan]

Sorry for all the off topic posts under this thread name.
I did something brain-dead when writing off line scripts to
do Pnews postings for me, and the 9 or so articles I was
posting got appended to one another starting about the
fifth posting.  Comp.lang.ada was the last of the set, and
turned out to be the worst mess.

I've made a couple of passes at cancelling the embarrassing
misposts, but with so many sites not respecting cancels,
and a home site so busy that some articles were posted long
after I logged off, that didn't work very well.



===== random archive quality quote =====
We must not forget that these ridiculous and tyrannical
laws were not imposed from outside -- they were voted by
the free agreement of all the interested parties
themselves -- and that their mores were even more austere
and puritanical than their laws.
  -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1838
--
Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>

Re: Popularizing Ada

[Philip Brooke]

I don't know whether someone has already suggested this:

A great many people access the Programming pages of About.com (formerly
miningco).  C++, Java, and Delphi are all there.  Where is Ada?  I know that
it would take a dedicated person to act as an editor for an Ada section
there.  This probably would mean either someone with a great deal of extra
time or someone whose employer thinks that his time on that project is worth
while.

Any other ideas on the subject?

        Regards,

        Philip Brooke
        pbrooke@N0SPAM.accurate-automation.com


======================================================

Kent Paul Dolan <xanthian@well.com> wrote in message
news:7jr7c3$rc3$1@its.hooked.net...
> In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
> what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
> methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
> <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:
>
> > Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> > caught on with any "mass market" appeal.
>
> My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
> software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
> mentality.
>
> > The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> > available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> > masses.
>
> I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
> anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
> a growing cadre of fanatic users".
>
> > Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> > American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> > out!  :-)
>
> I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
> enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
> source code multi-university grad school project for a
> "cooperative programming in the large" class.
>
> The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
> doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
> lets them find out it is fun to drink.
>
> Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:
>
> > So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> > this context?
>
> Several ideas come immediately to mind:
>
> "The Ada cure for the common OS"?
> "The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
> "The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
> "The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
> "AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
> "The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
> "Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?
>
> I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
> lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.
>
> ===== random archive quality quote =====
> "Only the Objectivists have an answer to all our problems, and it's
wrong."
>   -- Hans Huettel
> --
> Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>
>

Re: Popularizing Ada

[David Botton]

They turned down Ada as a subject area for their site. They don't feel it
will generate enough traffic.

David Botton

Philip Brooke wrote in message
<954225C62FE0593D.EF35660594E8371A.AC5524F68736C0E9@lp.airnews.net>...
>A great many people access the Programming pages of About.com (formerly
>miningco).  C++, Java, and Delphi are all there.  Where is Ada?

Re: Popularizing Ada

[Weston T. Pan]

Rob Veenker wrote:
> 
> I always wondered why Ada is not present on the many Linux distributions.
> (At least I couldn't find them)
> Most of the GNU-ware is present; why not Ada ? (GNAT)
> Maybe its too obvious ?

Well, this is the response I got from the author of Slackware :

[Begin quote]

Well, I've included gnat in the past, but don't think I'll consider it
again unless it's merged as part of the egcs project.  It ended up being
quite a headache, since gnat releases could take quite a while to come
out
after a new gcc release, and it was just a bit too much to deal with as
a
set of outside patches.  Hopefully they'll get together with the egcs
project.  If that's not possible, I'd also consider including it if it
could be reworked as a compiler with it's own backend, and didn't
require
modifying the C compiler;  but, I don't see that happening soon.

Best regards,

Pat

[end quote]


--Weston Pan

Re: Popularizing Ada

[Rob Veenker]

I always wondered why Ada is not present on the many Linux distributions.
(At least I couldn't find them)
Most of the GNU-ware is present; why not Ada ? (GNAT)
Maybe its too obvious ?

Regards,

Rob Veenker


Philip Brooke <pbrooke@accurate-automation.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:954225C62FE0593D.EF35660594E8371A.AC5524F68736C0E9@lp.airnews.net...
> I don't know whether someone has already suggested this:
>
> A great many people access the Programming pages of About.com (formerly
> miningco).  C++, Java, and Delphi are all there.  Where is Ada?  I know
that
> it would take a dedicated person to act as an editor for an Ada section
> there.  This probably would mean either someone with a great deal of extra
> time or someone whose employer thinks that his time on that project is
worth
> while.
>
> Any other ideas on the subject?
>
>         Regards,
>
>         Philip Brooke
>         pbrooke@N0SPAM.accurate-automation.com
>
>
> ======================================================
>
> Kent Paul Dolan <xanthian@well.com> wrote in message
> news:7jr7c3$rc3$1@its.hooked.net...
> > In a thread "Subject:  Re:  When will Ada big moment arrive?
> > what is missing?  " to which my offline posting composition
> > methods will never add a strand, Marin David Condic
> > <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Remember that C was around for a long time before it
> > > caught on with any "mass market" appeal.
> >
> > My impression was that it caught on via BSD Unix and cheap
> > software for college use, and by appeal to the hacker
> > mentality.
> >
> > > The more we do with Ada and the more useful tools we make
> > > available, the more likely it is Ada will appeal to the
> > > masses.
> >
> > I'd rephrase that as "the more fun code we put in the way of
> > anyone who wants to mess with it, the quicker Ada will gain
> > a growing cadre of fanatic users".
> >
> > > Hey!  Anybody out there want to write the next Great
> > > American Operating System in Ada?  I'm game!  Linux, watch
> > > out!  :-)
> >
> > I think a more fruitful approach would be to rewrite and
> > enhance something like Nethack, in Ada, perhaps as an open
> > source code multi-university grad school project for a
> > "cooperative programming in the large" class.
> >
> > The idea here being sort of like the TV ads where the mom
> > doesn't tell the kids the juice drink is good for them, just
> > lets them find out it is fun to drink.
> >
> > Elsewhere, MDC also wrote:
> >
> > > So is there some other figure of speech we could abuse in
> > > this context?
> >
> > Several ideas come immediately to mind:
> >
> > "The Ada cure for the common OS"?
> > "The AdaOS that restores the ozone layer"?
> > "The AdaOS cure for cancer"?
> > "The Ada that saves the ecOSystem"?  <-- my vote
> > "AdaOS for peace in our lifetime"?
> > "The OS in Ada that ate Manhattan"?
> > "Ada95OS: last millennium's answer for this millennium's problems"?
> >
> > I could go on, but I discovered a previously unnoticed
> > lingering fragment of a conscience at about this point.
> >
> > ===== random archive quality quote =====
> > "Only the Objectivists have an answer to all our problems, and it's
> wrong."
> >   -- Hans Huettel
> > --
> > Kent Paul Dolan, <xanthian@well.com>, <xanthian@aztec.asu.edu>
> >
>
>

Re: Popularizing Ada

[Weston T. Pan]

William Starner wrote:
> 
> Weston T. Pan wrote:
> >

[stuff about Debian and GNAT]

> >
> > Well, this is the response I got from the author of Slackware :
> >
> > [Begin quote]
> >
> > Well, I've included gnat in the past, but don't think I'll consider it
> > again unless it's merged as part of the egcs project.  It ended up being
> > quite a headache, since gnat releases could take quite a while to come
> > out
> > after a new gcc release, and it was just a bit too much to deal with as
> > a
> > set of outside patches.  Hopefully they'll get together with the egcs
> > project.  If that's not possible, I'd also consider including it if it
> > could be reworked as a compiler with it's own backend, and didn't
> > require
> > modifying the C compiler;  but, I don't see that happening soon.
> 
> Hmm. Does he include GNU Pascal? That compiles against EGCS but is still an

No. Slackware only provides a Pascal to C translator.

> independent package with its own release dates. Neither GPC or GNAT (with any
> available patches) compile against GCC 2.95 (release date July 1), unfortunetly.

;(


--Weston

Re: Popularizing Ada

[Richard Kenner]

In article <376BD6F7.7F52AE74@worldnet.att.net> billeug@worldnet.att.net writes:
>Neither GPC or GNAT (with any available patches) compile against GCC 2.95
>(release date July 1), unfortunetly.

GCC 2.95 (I no longer recall what the EGCS naming convention equivalent
version is) was essentially frozen a while ago.  I can't speak for GPC,
but I believe your statement is correct about GNAT, though I presume patches
to make it mostly work will appear shortly.

GCC 3.0 is expected to be released roughly the end of this year and the plan is
for that to be the release where GNAT's patches are merged in (work towards
this goal should start in the next couple of months).

Re: Popularizing Ada

[William Starner]

Weston T. Pan wrote:
> 
> Rob Veenker wrote:
> >
> > I always wondered why Ada is not present on the many Linux distributions.
> > (At least I couldn't find them)
> > Most of the GNU-ware is present; why not Ada ? (GNAT)
> > Maybe its too obvious ?

Debian includes it, because Debian includes anything there's a developer for and
a free license. Debian's GNAT fixed the problem of the conflict between EGCS and
GCC 2.8.1 by calling GNAT's gcc gnatgcc. This is why Ada packages that Autoconf
often check for gnatgcc.
> 
> Well, this is the response I got from the author of Slackware :
> 
> [Begin quote]
> 
> Well, I've included gnat in the past, but don't think I'll consider it
> again unless it's merged as part of the egcs project.  It ended up being
> quite a headache, since gnat releases could take quite a while to come
> out
> after a new gcc release, and it was just a bit too much to deal with as
> a
> set of outside patches.  Hopefully they'll get together with the egcs
> project.  If that's not possible, I'd also consider including it if it
> could be reworked as a compiler with it's own backend, and didn't
> require
> modifying the C compiler;  but, I don't see that happening soon.

Hmm. Does he include GNU Pascal? That compiles against EGCS but is still an
independent package with its own release dates. Neither GPC or GNAT (with any
available patches) compile against GCC 2.95 (release date July 1), unfortunetly.

Re: Popularizing Ada

[William Dale]

Now that is circular thinking.  If it's not covered it sure won't
generate much traffic!! 

David Botton wrote:
> 
> They turned down Ada as a subject area for their site. They don't feel it
> will generate enough traffic.
> 
> David Botton
> 
> Philip Brooke wrote in message
> <954225C62FE0593D.EF35660594E8371A.AC5524F68736C0E9@lp.airnews.net>...
> >A great many people access the Programming pages of About.com (formerly
> >miningco).  C++, Java, and Delphi are all there.  Where is Ada?

-- 

"The difference between hardware and software is that the more you play
with hardware, the more likely you are to break it, but the more you
play with software the more likely you are to FIX it."

Bill Dale 
LMMS
mailto:william.dale.jr@lmco.com
mailto:N2RHV@amsat.org