Re: An Ada IDE and discussions

["Marin David Condic" <marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com>]

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Well, its not *my* product and I don't earn a living directly or indirectly
from it so I'm more on the "customer" side of things. It kind of comes down
to this: If I'm trying to build a GUI, I have alternatives as to what tools
are available to do that job. If someone has a GUI builder out there that is
well documented and includes all the info I need to use it versus (maybe a
perfectly wonderful) tool that "hides its light under a bushel basket" by
not having all the info one needs to effectively use it, which way do you
think I'm likely to go?

I don't mean to criticise the guys building GtkAda and say that their tool
is doodoo. I've driven the tool enough to know that it does seem to work and
does provide a means of building GUIs that can be used on different
platforms. That's an achievement. However, as an "Art Critic" I'm picking on
what I perceive to be a certain lack of documentation that I believe is
needed to explain how to use the tool. I think the developers should take
that in the spirit in which it is offered - a helpful criticism that might
just serve to making a better & more successful product.

I've done GUI building on the Windows platform and you're right about
wanting things to look familiar. I'm willing to accept that the GtkAda GUI
builder operates on different concepts and that I would have to learn how to
develop using those concepts. That's where I'm saying there is a missing
layer of documentation. If a toolmaker wants to build something that
operates differently from what the end-user is used to seeing, maybe that is
a good thing, but to do so implies that the toolmaker is going to have to
help the customer transition to the new paradigm. Otherwise, we stick to
what we know... :-)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"nicolas" <n.brunot@cadwin.com> wrote in message
news:9j12ic$bvi$1@s1.read.news.oleane.net...
> "Emmanuel Briot" <briot@act-europe.fr> a �crit dans le message news:
> m3r8vg5778.fsf@lyon.act-europe.fr...
>
>
> More likely you missed what Marin said just a few lines below :
> "(since I have to actually earn a living doing something that doesn't
> involve playing with things like Gnat & Gtk)"
>
> Honestly I don't think you can have the slightest hope to expand (and even
> maintain) Ada use,
> if you are not really competitive on Win32 platform whatever you think
about
> it.
> That means that compiler vendors must provide everything so that potential
> users won't see any regression or any increased complexity when they try
Ada
> for the first time.
> More than that, they must really see benefits.
> It includes debuggers, IDE, GUI (as intuitive and easy for Windows
> developpers, as what they are used to)
>
> I have no illusion about the feelings of a programmer coming to Ada and
Java
> for the first time,
> and tries to build a basic application in both languages.
> You cannot rely only on people who are already convinced that they have to
> use Ada (Especially if they are not building Win32 applications)
>
>
>