Re: status of Ada STL?

[Ole-Hjalmar Kristensen <oleh@vlinux.voxelvision.no>]

Adrian Hoe <mailbox@*nospam*adrianhoe.com> writes:

<snip>

> 
> There are a lot of (re)usable Ada code (or libraries) out there
> already. Most can be easily extended. The question here is it
> necessary to make a library? And we have many Ada websites. Why not
> have these libraries and download location listed there?
> 
> Just my 2cents. ;-)
> -- 
> Remove *nospam* to email.              -- Adrian Hoe
>                                         -- http://adrianhoe.com

Yes, there are reusable libraries, but you miss the point.  The STL is
well thought out, it works, and it's part of the *standard*.  The
situation in C++ was the same as Ada for many years, lot of reusable
libraries, but no standard, and it really hurt development of portable
programs. You may argue that Ada libraries are more portable, but you
still have to download it, compile it for your platform, maybe run
some tests to make sure that it works, learn how to use it
efficiently, etc. Very often you end up rolling you own
problem-specific library.  Certainly not a problem for a large
software project which can enforce standards, but for most application
development, it's very nice to have a standard library you can depend
on.