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: fdb77,5f529c91be2ac930 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 11232c,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid11232c,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,583275b6950bf4e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-08 13:22:36 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: softeng3456@netscape.net (soft-eng) Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.ada,misc.misc Subject: Re: Using Ada for device drivers? (Was: the Ada mandate, and why it collapsed and died) Date: 8 May 2003 13:22:35 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <9fa75d42.0305081222.623e0b31@posting.google.com> References: <9fa75d42.0304230424.10612b1a@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305020516.bdba239@posting.google.com> <82347202.0305021418.4719da45@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305060521.400f1d80@posting.google.com> <82347202.0305061103.2ddd98e4@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305070504.6866e7a3@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305070929.2d7a0d4c@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 32.97.239.17 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1052425356 2634 127.0.0.1 (8 May 2003 20:22:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 May 2003 20:22:36 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.java.advocacy:63344 comp.object:63016 comp.lang.ada:37077 misc.misc:14024 Date: 2003-05-08T20:22:36+00:00 List-Id: "Marin David Condic" wrote in message news:... > soft-eng wrote in message > news:9fa75d42.0305070929.2d7a0d4c@posting.google.com... > > > > No doubt, but how do you think C became popular in the > > first place, overcoming the inertia (that was then) in favor > > of Fortran, Cobol, and Pascal? > > > Simple: AT&T practically gave away Unix to anybody that wanted it and it > came with a C compiler. Computer manufacturers didn't want to invent their > own OS's and used Unix as a cost savings. Universities had freebie Unix > floating around on thousands of computers in their various labs. Hence there > were millions of C compilers out there just native on a bunch of machines. > What would someone with one of those machines use to write their programs? A > Fortran compiler that they had to buy or the native C compiler that they got > as a freebie with the machine? > > MDC > -- > ====================================================================== > Marin David Condic > I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ > My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/ > > Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g > > "Going cold turkey isn't as delicious as it sounds." > -- H. Simpson > ====================================================================== Free compilers for other languages were available, too. And Unix was never the only OS around (in its range), there were OS's from DEC, DG etc. Many of these were popular at unis. And I could be mistaken, but I thought even Unix had an "f77" compiler included in the distribution, there was no need to buy it separately.