Well, its a fair criticism if other languages have some sort of de facto "standard" library of GUI & system stuff that makes it more practical for teaching and application implementation. Yes, lots of libraries exist but that is, in a way, a negative. If there was just one dominant library - or maybe one dominant library per platform - that provided the functionality that people get from things like Java or the MFC, then it makes it easier to develop teaching materials and applications that go beyond a CLI. That's a non-trivial issue. It would help Ada a lot to have a library that did GUI work & provided system services and was adopted by the vendors as the Right Thing To Do. Throw in some interactive GUI builders & documentation and that about covers the iorst hole. Yes, the pieces are there - lots of different choices. No single dominant technology though, so it makes things confusing to the uninitiate and hard to target with value-added products. 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/ "John English" wrote in message news:3BC30674.BA88AAB6@brighton.ac.uk... > "chris.danx" wrote: > > > > "Ralph M�ritz" wrote in message > > news:Xns9133DBAF0AD71ralphworkcoza@196.25.240.158... > > > I think that's sad, and now that > > > Ada's parents (the U.S DoD) are dropping Ada 95 what does the future hold > > > in store? Is it worthwhile learning a language nobody appreciates or uses? > > > > They teach it at a few uni's now. Don't know how if its uptake is more than > > before; might be interesting to find out. > > Several have switched to Java. Reasons include lack of beginner's texts > (which are all out of print because the market is too small because no-one > teaches it anymore...) and, more importantly, lack of standard libraries > for GUI development, networking, and data collections. Although there > are plenty around, none of them are *standard*, so the perception is that > Ada can't do these things. > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > John English | mailto:je@brighton.ac.uk > Senior Lecturer | http://www.comp.it.bton.ac.uk/je > Dept. of Computing | ** NON-PROFIT CD FOR CS STUDENTS ** > University of Brighton | -- see http://burks.bton.ac.uk > -----------------------------------------------------------------