Re: IBM Acquires Rational Ada

[nma124@hotmail.com (steve_H)]

Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com> wrote in message news:<3DF2A483.EC512CDF@adaworks.com>...
 
> 
> Alas, no hint of what will become of Rational Ada.   If anyone at IBM
> realizes the power of the Rational Ada product, it could be great for
> Ada and for IBM.   I wish I could be optimistic about this.
> 
> Richard Riehle

I have not used rational Ada products. But from the point of view of making
Ada more popular with the masses, I doubt it will make any difference if
Rational Ada compiler existed or not. Why do you think rational Ada
is important for Ada?

The only hope for Ada getting more popular, is for gnat to be 
fully integrated in the gcc system. This makes Ada available 
anywhere gcc is available. This means a programmer now can write in Ada
(instead of C or C++) knowing their software can be build just as easily.

All those commerical compiler systems are dying (those for standard 
languages that gcc can now fully do, mainly  C and C++). From Sun to 
IBM to HP to Borland's. As gcc improves, commerical systems that 
costs thousands and tangled with licensing issues are being left behind.   

Those companies now need to add more value to their compilers than just
compiling the source code, and this comes in the form of better debuggers,
and such. 

If it were not for gcc, we probably would not have linux nor apache nor
99.99% of the open system products out there. If gcc could do Ada long time
ago, then may be apache would have been written in Ada instead of C? at 
least that would have been an option.

just my 2 cents ofcourse.