Re: Anybody in US using ADA ? New language competition? (long)

["chris.danx" <spamoff.danx@ntlworld.com>]

> See above. Superiority of the language/compiler has not sold for the last
> twenty years and isn't likely to start selling soon. And a cautionary note
> on bindings: That puts you in the "me too!" category and you're forever
> playing "catch up" so you are forever at a disadvantage compared to the
> native language of the thing you're binding to. You are much better off
> defining something *different* that is within your control and offers
> product distinction.

In some ways I agree with you but if you don't have "me too!" then
people ain't gonna look twice at you.  For example, I would like to do
some raster graphics work (practice for uni) right now for a course.
Where is the ada package that lets me do that?  Does it support decoding
and encoding of raster graphics formats?  Does it support multiple
colour spaces (eg RGB, RGBA, CYM, HSV, Monotone, Greyscale)?  Is it
portable?  Can you interface it with GUIs easily?

Java has this, and I've seen other languages that offer something
comparable (libraries etc) but there's none for Ada (not on Adapower,
nor in the first 4 pages of google on a reasonable search string - which
is a rough limit I've observed to the depth people will go on average
before changing the search criteria).  Even given the fact I know Ada, I
have considered going back to Java to do this work.  What would a newer
Ada programmer do?  What would someone looking for a new language to
learn think if raster graphics where important to them?  This is just
one library ada lacks...

If I get time, I'll finish writing the proposal for Ada 2D that I'm in
the middle of, but like so many things I've wanted to do or tried to do,
this might not ever come to be... it might be shelved because I just
don't have the time with all the Uni work they love to give us.  Failing
that I will upload it for others to work on, but I doubt anyone else
would be willing to work on it for any length of time because we're all
in the same boat - e.g. this is probably why grace is stalled (it's
certainly true of Aqua)!


Danx
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