Re: My Ada Future

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@comcast.net>]

Freejack wrote:

> I'm typically finding that experienced Ada developers have the discipline
> to outperform many of thier counterparts in the software industry. This
> is also becoming evident with Eiffel and Forth developers too. Not so
> much because these are "better" languages per say, but rather because
> the languages have a tendency to train thier users into a more 
> rigorous method of accomplishing things. Hehe. 
> 
> The unfortunate reality is that most people expect C/C++/Java/VB skills
> from thier developers.
> 
> That's why I say that we need to carve out our own market. Maybe start
> off simple. Replace some existing Shareware with your own that's about 10
> times better than the one your replacing.
> Write some critical OSS or Free Software applications which apply Ada as
> the tool of choice. And polish it.
> Contribute to the Ada Web Server project and AdaSockets. Work on PolyORB.
> Then demo those apps to employers.
> 
> Unfortunately managers are still caught in the language du jour mindset
> of the 90's. It's gonna take a bit more work to break that mold.

I used to cheat, and when I have to have code written in C, it still 
works.  For something budgeted at say a month in C, I can spend one week 
developing it in Ada, a few days writting a rigorous test suite, then 
transform the code into C one routine at a time.  I always seemed to be 
able to finish well within schedule, and still get the much higher 
quality associated with Ada.  The only thing you have to watch is a 
tendancy to "think C" while coding the Ada.  You need to use the full 
richness of Ada, especially in the interfaces before tranforming to C, 
or you let bugs leak through.

-- 
                                           Robert I. Eachus

100% Ada, no bugs--the only way to create software.