From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,38e3cd194770d545 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newscon06.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!newsmst01b.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr14.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!4988f22a!not-for-mail From: Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <4cE0f.1602$ir4.1138@edtnps90> <6Zm1f.116464$qY1.5654@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net> Subject: Re: Investigating Ada X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 64.164.117.94 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr14.news.prodigy.com 1128736169 ST000 64.164.117.94 (Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:49:29 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:49:29 EDT Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com X-UserInfo1: O@Y[R^[GZRRER_H]]RKB_UDAZZ\DPCPDLXUNNHDK@YUDUWYAKVUOPCW[ML\JXUCKVFDYZKBMSFX^OMSAFNTINTDDMVW[X\THOPXZRVOCJTUTPC\_JSBVX\KAOTBAJBVMZTYAKMNLDI_MFDSSOLXINH__FS^\WQGHGI^C@E[A_CF\AQLDQ\BTMPLDFNVUQ_VM Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 01:49:29 GMT Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:5505 Date: 2005-10-08T01:49:29+00:00 List-Id: "Jim Rogers" wrote in message news:6Zm1f.116464$qY1.5654@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net... > > "Phoebe" wrote in news:4cE0f.1602$ir4.1138@edtnps90: > > > I'm going to learn it anyway, but I'm just hoping that people could > > comment on its popularity, and also how it has kept up against the > > other languages which surely must have incorporated a lot of its > > advantages by now. Thanks > > Interestingly, very few languages have incorporated a lot of Ada's > advantages by now. > Nice list of Ada's benefits in your post. It seems that most programmers are more interested in convenience during development than they are the long-term health of a software product. The latter concern should be a management issue, but not many managers are prepared to understand the problem well enough to choose Ada. I am currently teaching a graduate seminar titled "Software Evolution." We are examining the issues related to the lifecycle of a software system, including how to plan for its continued adaptability to new user requirements, new environments, and new hardware. Sometimes this is thought of as maintenance. Planning for software evolution, which manifests itself in many forms and technical demands, is becoming more and more essential. One approach is to simply plan to rewrite the code every so often. This is currently a popular choice among those who write software in HTML, XML, scripting languages, etc. However, rewrite is not a good choice for the majority of software systems. As we examine the language alternatives, Ada comes through as a sound choice. It is becoming increasing clear that, while extensible software can be written in most contemporary languages, the very design of those languages discourages this kind of planned evolution. Java and Eiffel are fairly good. C++, as currently practiced and programmed, is horrible. I suppose C++ is not to blame, but its practitioners seemed determined to prevent anyone from understanding their code well-enough to extend it. So, as we study the problem of software evolution, Ada is clearly a good choice. Richard Riehle