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-Thread: 103376,3c31df29868537 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII Path: g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!proxad.net!newsfeed1.ip.tiscali.net!tiscali!transit1.news.tiscali.nl!dreader2.news.tiscali.nl!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: [Ann] Ada on the 2004 Libre Software Meeting References: <40e487ac$0$25133$636a15ce@news.free.fr> From: Ludovic Brenta Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2004 19:23:11 +0200 Message-ID: <87bripf62o.fsf@insalien.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:N1eUjAahkWtYh/wy/E3hiicXgeM= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Organization: Tiscali bv NNTP-Posting-Date: 09 Jul 2004 19:23:16 CEST NNTP-Posting-Host: 83.134.242.115 X-Trace: 1089393796 dreader2.news.tiscali.nl 62389 83.134.242.115:33027 X-Complaints-To: abuse@tiscali.nl Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:2130 Date: 2004-07-09T19:23:16+02:00 List-Id: Lionel Draghi writes: > The 5th edition of the Libre Software Meeting > (http://lsm2004.abul.org/rubrique2.html) will take place from the 6th > to the 10th of July 2004 on Bordeaux (France). > > Within the technical topic "Very-high level programming languages for > writing applications" (http://lsm2004.abul.org/article17.html), > Ada-France organize the Ada presentation the 8th of july. > > Those presentations will demonstrate not only how well suited is the > language for free software development, but also how easy it is to > install and learn. > > * 13h, /Lionel Draghi/ : openning > * 13h10, /Ludovic Brenta/ : langage overview > * 14h05, /Jean-Pierre Rosen/ (Adalog ) : Ada, > a language of choice for free software > * 14h45, Thomas Quinot (ACT-Europe ) : > AdaCore role in GNAT use for free software > * 15h20, /Samuel Tardieu/ : Ada open language : using Ada with other > languages such as Forth, Erlang, etc. > * 16h15, /Thomas Quinot/ (ACT-Europe ) : > PolyOrb , the schizophrenic > middleware, an innovative research project developed in Ada 95, > now industrialized, free software from the earliest stages of its > development. > * 16h50, /St�phane Rivi�re/ : > o Introducing AIDE (Ada Instant Development Environment), all > Ada for Windows ready to run on a CD > o Martin and Xavier (13 years both) will explain us how they > learn programming in Ada with AIDE > * 17h30, /Ludovic Brenta/ : Ada within Debian > > More details (in French) on the Ada-France web site > http://www.ada-france.org/article111.html > (The site is down right now, but will be back soon) Here is my report from the event; I arrived back in Brussels yesterday at midnight. The Libre software meeting went as planned. There were maybe 1000 persons overall. There were a dozen booths from several associations and free software projects. On Thursday afternoon, attendants could choose between 11 conferences on various themes, or joining any one of 14 small rooms where informal discussions were being held, or software being developed. Richard M. Stallman was present and, as usual, delivered his speech about how bad software patents are, and he was of course surrounded by a swarm of admirers. Anyway, at 13:00 there were about 30 people in the auditorium, not counting the speakers. The presentations turned out to be a 6-hour marathon, packed with really interesting stuff. At the end there were sill 2 people in the audience, who had stayed the whole time and looked very serious about learning Ada. As an introduction to my speech about Ada, I showed off a picture of the C-130J cockpit filled with state-of-the art avionics, and this immediately captivated the audience. After my speech, I passed around the dozen or so brochures I'd brought from Barco Avionics. They also made quite a strong impression on the audience, and none remained in the room at the end of the day. I should have brought twice as many brochures. I was most impressed by two 13-year-old youths who started learning programming in February this year, and are already Ada die-hards after playing with Python for a while, and also looking at Lisp, C and Java. They understand that Ada is not a fashionable language but still prefer using a good language than a fashionable one. Even more stunning, they even prefer using Emacs instead of more graphical IDEs such as GPS! They've written a 2000-line text-mode application in Ada that allows them to draw pictures using ASCII block characters, save them into text files, read back and display them. They designed the file format themselves, and it turns out it is quite similar to XPM. They have a second application that uses these files to display a "Start" menu with a number of applets, one of which is a fully working calculator. The father of one of these youths, St�phane Rivi�re of AIDE fame, taught them the basics of Ada during 45-minute courses on Sundays, and they did all the rest by themselves with very little supervision. After only 4 months since their first exposure to programming, they understand and routinely use separate compilation and encapsulation, and were asking me questions about multitasking and game programming in Ada! My conclusions about the event: - I was thrilled to meet some prominent Ada people whom I knew only by email. Lionel Draghi, Samuel Tardieu, Jeanp-Pierre Rosen, Thomas Quinot and St�phane Rivi�re and his "MX" team: thank you! - I was also thrilled to meet people I'd never heard of before, but who were appreciative and said so. - The audience was small but we definitely carried our point across ("use Ada"). I'm pretty sure we made at least two converts, and probably more who remained silent or left before the end of the 6-hour "marathon". - Areas for improvement include better posters and signs directing people to the auditorium; better speaker discipline (some speeches went overtime); and more time dedicated to questions and answers. - There is so much we can say about Ada and free Ada software that we really have to make difficult choices in the topics we discuss, or else increase the length of time allocated to speeches. This weekend, I will convert my slides to PDF and post them on the Libre Software Meeting web site[1]. They will also be mirrored on the Ada-France[2] web site, and probably on other sites as well. Good news is I now have them in both French and English versions; they may and will of course be reused in future events. To encourage this, I will license them under the GPL. The next big event will be the FOSDEM[3], held in Brussels every year in February. The dates for 2005 have not been published yet, but I expect that it will take place during the weekend of 25-26 February 2005, take or leave a week. I plan to organise a similar session about Ada as part of this event. In the past two years when I attended this event, the audience was in the range of 3000 to 5000 developers, geeks, enthusiasts, and members of academia. If anyone is willing to give a speech at the FOSDEM, please contact me. [1] http://libresoftwaremeeting.org [2] http://www.ada-france.org [3] FOSDEM, Free and Open-Source Developers' Meeting, http://www.fosdem.org -- Ludovic Brenta.