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From: "Ehud Lamm" <mslamm@mscc.huji.ac.il>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: What to Do?
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 19:08:47 +0200
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Date: 2001-01-01T19:08:47+02:00
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Marin David Condic <mcondic.nospam@acm.org> wrote in message
news:3A50ABDF.3A8F6C0D@acm.org...
>
> I'm not sure why you think most of the posters here are amateur
programmers?
> We have a fair amount of students who post here, but I get the impression
> that the bulk of us actually earn a living every day by working with
> software. Maybe some of us don't use Ada every day - our jobs may demand
the
> use of other languages. Perhaps because many of us build devices that use
> software as only one component you think that we are primarily electrical
> engineers or mechanical engineers, etc? I think its pretty clear that at
> least most of the people who post here regularly seem to have a good deal
of
> knowledge concerning software engineering, language design, practical
> software experience, etc. If they are "amateurs" then they must be
extremely
> skilled "amateurs".
>

I'd hire most of this amateurs in a second. (Currently I work teaching, but
I had my share of actual work).

In fact, I think one problem Ada had (note past tense) was lack of amateurs.
As opposed to such "cool" languages like C++ and Java (and in the old day
Turbo Pascal), most hobbyist never hear of Ada, or hear misleading info (see
Jargon File).
I think these days things are changing a bit (I am judging mainly from this
group,  AdaPower etc.)

I think that if we succeed in making the Ada community larger, by attracting
hobbyists, the "real world" situation will improve too.
(I still haven't found the time to write "Why should Hackers Love Ada?"
If anyone wnats to write it, feel free...)

Ehud