Re: Ada's (in)visibility in the engineering community

[pacbell.com!att-out!walter!obry@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Pascal Obry)]

I like very much Ada. And I tried to convince in 2 differents researh center to
use it, but I failled ...

Why ? 

because they don't want to learn a new language, 

because they don't or can't afford an Ada compiler,

because they don't see any reason to buy an (expensive) Ada compiler whereas
they have a free C compiler in any of their computer, here GNAT will do
something very good.

because they think Ada is a too complex language and too big. Here they make
the big mistake to mix up language and compiler. My point is that it is not
because the compiler is hard to make that the language is difficult. And in
this case to make a compiler is difficult because the language is *powerfull*
not because it is complex to use ..

because they don't like to think a lot about the conception of their projects.
they want to make it without conception (OO or others ...) and C for this is
very good because you can do every thing you want, there is alway (a bad) way
to reach your goal.

because they didn't know Ada at all so they chose C++ (yes, they think it's the
good old C plus something so it should be good too ... bad mistake no !)

------------------------

Also all these guys sometime use a kind of *meta* language to describe an 
algorithm ... And you know what : this meta language is something very
close from Ada ...

So I tried and I failled ... But I can't even understand why !!
They have no good reasons to don't use Ada, they have no good reason to choose
C++ but they chose it ...

-------------------------

I learn Ada by myself. I like very much to learn and compare different 
languages, today I know C, C++, Eiffel, Ada, (plus a lot of other languages
like Basic, Fortran, Cobol). But after all, I definitly like very much Ada ...

Like Edmond Schonberg said in is comparison Ada 9x and C++ :

" Although the C++ community would never state it so baldly, it appears clear
to us that C++ is to some extent a reaction to Ada. By extending C with some
of the best ideas of Ada, C++ did in some measure catch up to Ada "

I would like to add that I know some guys that didn't like Ada and its
strong typing and the nested procedures, but now they enjoy this into C++.
So why waiting for C++ V3.9 beta version alpha testing 3.4 ... Use Ada
rigth now, it's a normed and validated language with all these features and
a lot of more ...


Pascal.
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