Apology

Apology

[Robert Firth]

Speaking of idiots...

Please excuse the last post, about half of which was garbage
caused by a combination of brain error and weird software.

Sorry, sorry, and have a happy solstice.

Apology

[Mike Feldman]

In pleading for an end to the language wars and hype on all sides, I 
think I went a bit too far and inadvertently dragged a few good names
in the dust. I apologize to Stroustrup, Meyer, Kernighan and Ritchie,
and whoever others' names I may have used. Ad hominem attacks ain't
good, and I'm sorry I yielded to the temptation to name names.

Look. We are all technical folks or we wouldn't be reading this group.
A certain amount of self-promotion goes along with any invention. I think
we, as good technical guys, need to try to distinguish between the promoters
and the thing being promoted. There's a lot of good stuff in Ada, even if it
did come from DoD and even if some folks got a little carried away with 
its promotion. Most of the real "hype" - by this I mean really exaggerated
claims - has died down, at least from where I sit in Washington. I believe
that most everyone is working in good faith to exploit the benefits of a
language designed for commonality instead of dialects, and for stability
instead of change. The residual hype we can ignore with impunity, I think,
and get on with our technical business.

I won't reiterate previous postings on the benefits of real standards - if 
you read 'em and agree, fine. If not, fine too. There are a lot of recent
developments - especially in the O-O world - that I wish Ada had been
prescient enough to incorporate in 1979. But I think these were really too
experimental to have adopted at that time. Whatever Ada9X incorporates from
all of this, let's try to give the folks a little credit for intelligence
and good faith, and do the best we can to live with the result.

There's a lot of good stuff in the other languages too. Let's stipulate that
C, C++, Eiffel, and the others are worthwhile inventions. The group is called
comp.lang.ada (or Info-Ada, if you read it on Internet). Let's try to stick
to the subject. If you want to bring other languages in for comparison,
I favor sober and thoughtful comparisons, with good examples, not shrill 
generalizations. I hope you agree.

Apologies again for the hasty language yesterday; no personal slurs intended.

Re: Apology

[Robert A Duff]

In article <00001a73+00002d04@msn.com>, Kenneth Mays <KMays@msn.com> wrote:
>If you feel that comp.lang.ada is only for technical issues and not job
>issues then I understand. If you feel otherwise, I'd like to hear.

I don't remember what you posted that offended someone, but
I must say I am *not* offended by "help wanted" postings on
comp.lang.ada.  Ada is a small enough niche right now, that
it's not harmful, and is useful to some.

I can see why comp.lang.c folks are offended by job ads -- they'd
be swamped.

- Bob

Apology

[Kenneth Mays]

Hi,

Well, I was going through an email that made a lot of sense to me. 
Recently, I've tried to focus on the issues on quality compilers and 
software metrics.
The Ada95 compiler (GNAT) was one of the few compilers I wanted to use for
daily projects and book review. Normally, I used a program called IntegrAda
for the testing. Since GNAT is "free" I thought it could be an easier test
model. Well, so far so good. My hope was to find a base of GOOD/GREAT 
tutorial books for students at all levels. One of the best books I have
read was "The Ada Tutorial" from the IEEE Computer Society. Although,
it is more of a reference type book it does give great information on
the inside methodology of Ada.

The apology was for the job listings. A focus was placed on posting jobs for
Ada programmers, young and old, on an international basis. I wanted to
keep the postings current and well monitored. A few past mistakes were
made from the posting of SigAda's/AdaIC listings. I hope this was 
cleared up. They maintain their own listings and I planned to 
contribute to their site. Since the postings, I did receive a lot of 
email looking for jobs in different countries. I was only hoping that 
the Ada agencies would acknowledge this need. I'd like to know if 
jobs exist in Australia, Mexico, Canada, and other countries.

If you feel that comp.lang.ada is only for technical issues and not job
issues then I understand. If you feel otherwise, I'd like to hear.

P.S. I'm looking for a "Ada95 Primer Plus" book that is comparable to
"C++ Primary Plus: Second Edition" from the Waite Group. Even something
comparable to "Teaching Yourself ANSI C++ in 21 Days". Please help me in
this mission to provide QUALITY references on Ada programming and compiler
support.

Ken (kmays@msn.com)

"We all make mistakes, but we should acknowledge our mistakes and move
on instead of looking behind at where we've been." - S.C.