My Ada Future

My Ada Future

[Andrew Carroll]

People,

Quick note...
Ok, someone posted about a virus or something?  Well, I get those anoying
Microsoft "Net Pack 'this' and Critical 'that'" messages as well.  So, just
to make sure I am "clean" I ran the FixSwen removal tool and checked all the
registry keys for the information listed on Symantec's website.  I am
officially clean peoples.

On to the subject...
I am trying to streamline my company services.  Right now I offer all kinds
of "computer" services and I feel I am getting stretched too thin and my
resume (completed projects) is getting too many small projects in it.  It
seems to show lack of focus.  I am now considering focusing most of my
attention on Ada.  Software Engineering with Ada and Ada Programming.  There
are others like Java, C++ and Assembly but I want to focus majority on Ada.

So what does the employment market for Ada look like from your point of
view?  Would you recommend "going Ada" to your friends?  What are some
programs I can write, that you know are impressive in the Ada "market", to
demonstrate my skills?  Any advice to offer?  Best place to look for Ada
jobs?  Anyone looking for a volunteer or employee?

Hopefully I have not violated the rules of this list by posting this.

Thanks!

Andrew C.

Re: My Ada Future

[Ekkehard Morgenstern]

"Andrew Carroll" <andrew@carroll-tech.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:mailman.51.1069760632.3110.comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org...
> So what does the employment market for Ada look like from your point of
> view?  Would you recommend "going Ada" to your friends?  What are some
> programs I can write, that you know are impressive in the Ada "market", to
> demonstrate my skills?  Any advice to offer?  Best place to look for Ada
> jobs?  Anyone looking for a volunteer or employee?

I'm wondering about this as well. Any advice appreciated! :-)

Ada is beginning to become my favourite programming language, and I'd like
to know as well where I could look for an Ada job. :-)

Re: My Ada Future

[Freejack]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:47:18 -0500, Ekkehard Morgenstern wrote:


> "Andrew Carroll" <andrew@carroll-tech.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:mailman.51.1069760632.3110.comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org...
>> So what does the employment market for Ada look like from your point of
>> view?  Would you recommend "going Ada" to your friends?  What are some
>> programs I can write, that you know are impressive in the Ada "market",
>> to demonstrate my skills?  Any advice to offer?  Best place to look for
>> Ada jobs?  Anyone looking for a volunteer or employee?
> 
> I'm wondering about this as well. Any advice appreciated! :-)
> 
> Ada is beginning to become my favourite programming language, and I'd
> like to know as well where I could look for an Ada job. :-)
 

Well people, the best thing to do it would seem, at this point in the
game, is to carve out our own market.

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.

For what it's worth, that's my two cents.

Freejack

Re: My Ada Future

[Robert I. Eachus]

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.

Re: My Ada Future

[Chad R. Meiners]

"Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:FvOdnTelZorKWVmi4p2dnA@comcast.com...
> 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.

I use to do this with programming assignments when professors wouldn't let
me turn in assignments written Ada.  I agree that this is a surprisingly
useful technique.

-CRM