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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,b446a49184d9e9e0,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96" Subject: Why it was a bad idea to drop The Mandate. Date: 1997/12/08 Message-ID: <97120812101591@psavax.pwfl.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 296485385 Sender: Ada programming language Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU X-VMS-To: SMTP%"INFO-ADA@VM1.NODAK.EDU" X-VMS-Cc: CONDIC Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-12-08T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Joe Gwinn writes WRT Re: fixed point vs floating point >And, I really don't see why it's necessary to deny the failings of >compilers that have been obsolete for at least a decade, for a now >superceeded language. Surely we can find something more current and >relevant to worry about, to argue about. > Now y'all know that Emmett Paige, et alia all stood up at the last TriAda and said "No!No!No!No!No!No! Just because we dropped The Mandate doesn't mean we're abandoning Ada!" One can argue forever about the rationality of imposing The Mandate in the first place. Once it was there, dropping it created *exactly* the perceptions Mr Gwinn and *numerous* others have expressed: "for a now superceeded (sic) language" Everybody in the trenches "knows" that Ada has been abandoned, that the DoD doesn't want to have anything to do with it anymore, that *all* Defense software is now going to be written in C++, that the Earth is flat and that next week Microsoft will be announcing its new angle-trisecting software. Will this perception *ever* change? Its sad to think that for all the merits of the language, Ada has down through its history suffered from problems of *perception* and not of reality. (Short of the reality that it can't overcome perception and achieve widespread acceptance.) The unfortunate thing is that creating and believing the incorrect perceptions has the exact impact of creating the corresponding reality. Is there any hope of correcting the misperceptions? Is the only way to do this to get the govt to spend a billion or so on a Madison Avenue styled advertising campaign? Or talk Microsoft or Sun into doing this for them? I'm beginning to believe that the only way to pull the fat out of the fire is with a massive ad campaign like the "Intel Inside" or ADM campaigns to get CEO's, Presidents, Managers and the general public to become "Ada Aware". Maybe we get some Hollywood types to wear little green ribbons at award ceremonies? The problem is identifying the stakeholder. Who has enough of a vested interest in Ada to be willing to spend that kind of money to protect the investment? I wish I knew what to do at this stage to help promote the language and correct the erroneous perceptions and preconceived notions that seem to have haunted Ada from the beginning. We've got a big investment in Ada technology and I'd hate to be forced to scrap this in favor of some inferior language simply because of a lack of "critical mass" necessary to sustain things the way they are. MDC Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer Voice: 561.796.8997 Pratt & Whitney GESP, M/S 731-96, P.O.B. 109600 Fax: 561.796.4669 West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600 Internet: CONDICMA@PWFL.COM =============================================================================== Glendower: "I can call spirits from the vasty deep." Hotspur: "Why so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?" -- Shakespeare, "Henry IV" ===============================================================================