Re: Future with Ada

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

"Pat Rogers" <progers@classwide.com> wrote in message
news:ESsS7.2213$Le3.1716485294@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
>
> I wish I could agree -- it's fun to design things -- but I don't think it
> will get there.  We'll spend too much time discussing and debating
low-level
> details.  That's why I started this thread by proposing one of the
existing
> implementations:  I believe we should pick one and run with it.  Sure,
let's
> discuss the characteristics of the overall library -- I would suggest
> Bertrand Meyer's criteria in his book describing Eiffel's library:
"Reusable
> Software: The Base Object-Oriented Component Libraries" -- but then let's
go
> with it.
>
I understand your point, but look at how much resistance there was to most
of the existing container libraries? What is already out there seemed to
have flaws that sufficient numbers of people found strongly objectionable.
If it didn't get adopted by unilateral imposition, its tough to get a
consensus. (I'd bet that if GNAT came bundled with the BC's, people would
still object - but would likely use it anyway.)


> If enough people ask for it, the vendors will provide it.  I have words to
> that effect from two of them.
>
But I don't recall that there were large number of folks calling Thomas
Edison on the phone and asking for him to invent the light bulb. Nor did
people Fax Henry Ford pictures of the car they wanted with a suggested name
of "Model T". :-) Sometimes businesses simply react to demand from their
customers. Sometimes businesses come up with something great and new and go
out and educate their customers as to why they would want to have it.
Waiting for a groundswell of demand from the customer base for some
particular container library is, IMHO, just about guaranteed to result in No
Standard Ada Component Library(tm). If it gets into one vendor at all, other
vendors will cater to different demands and you'll have dozens (or at least
a few) competing standard libraries. Customers don't always know what they
want until its under their nose and they start to discover its advantages.

Hey. If the vendors go for it, great. But I'd bet that it wouldn't happen
any time soon.


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