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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a1ce307c10055549 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-12-09 14:45:25 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: nma124@hotmail.com (steve_H) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: IBM Acquires Rational Ada Date: 9 Dec 2002 14:45:21 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <8db3d6c8.0212091445.12594821@posting.google.com> References: <3DF1615C.7AAAC86E@adaworks.com> <3DF1B042.6603DDDE@easystreet.com> <3DF2A483.EC512CDF@adaworks.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.203.198.30 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1039473922 17469 127.0.0.1 (9 Dec 2002 22:45:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Dec 2002 22:45:22 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:31613 Date: 2002-12-09T22:45:22+00:00 List-Id: "Marin David Condic" wrote in message >. Engineering costs usually > aren't the big drivers in most industries, but getting out the door faster > *is* a major advantage. To that end, better development kits around Ada, > bigger & better libraries and better access to underlying OS capabilities > are going to create development leverage that gets end-products out the > door. This is like the chicken and egg problem. Ada won't get popular until more packages are available. And no packages will be written to it if it is not popular. The only way for Ada to become popular is for gcc to have full Ada support, where any one can just type "gcc foo.adb" on any system where gcc is installed, and it just works. No downloads, no nothing. ALl the libraries and all the packages are there. There is no other way left for Ada for it to become popular. All the tricks and the speeches have been tried and said. Commerical Ada compilers from closed commerical companies would make no difference to the popularity of a language. (unless one can buy it for $99.99 and have full IDE with it, etc.. Sorta like the TurboPascal days, which made Pascal the most popular language in its days). It is not the few Ada programmers working inside Boeing or the defenss department who will write those package for everyone to use, it is the open source programmers, the college students who want to make some impact, and the inspiring programmers who love to program and want to spend the whole weekend coding for the love of it. Now those programmers turn to C and C++ and Java becuse it is everyone and free. Ada full support in gcc makes Ada an option, and only then you will start to see more Ada packages and more systems built with Ada. Ada has to grow from the bottom up (if it is to have a chane), from the masses up. Not from the officies of corporate America down to the programmers. That is why I think rational rose Ada compiler, or any other expensive commerical Ada compiler being there or not, will make no difference to the popularity of Ada. After all, we hade those for years, and it did not make Ada any more popular. just my 2 cents.