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From: Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada noob here! Is Ada widely used?
Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 21:59:58 +0200
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Date: 2010-05-20T21:59:58+02:00
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Duke Normandin writes:
> On 2010-05-20, Anonymous <cripto@ecn.org> wrote:
>>> Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used, and in what
>>> area(s) does it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching,
>>> graphics, etc? TIA..
>>
>> Ada was never widely used. It could have been, because it's one of
>> the all time great general purpose languages. There's probably no
>> better or more flexible HLL. However, various factors combined to
>> make it a niche language and it doesn't have any hope of breaking out
>> of that niche or getting the use and exposure it deserves.
>
> Well! Doesn't _that_ just suck! Tell me more about these "various
> factors" - off this NG if you prefer. I need to make an informed
> decision as to whether or not I should continue learning Ada.

My experience shows that:

- people who learn Ada become more adept at other languages.  This is
  because Ada teaches them to think properly.  This in turn is because,
  in Ada, concepts are much more orthogonal than in other languages
  (e.g. encapsulation is orthogonal to types).

- people who spend the effort to learn Ada show they are real software
  engineers.  A real software enginer bases their decisions on technical
  merits, not popularity.

- Sloppy programmers avoid Ada, therefore Ada helps avoid sloppy
  programmers.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.