Re: C++ vs. Ada -- Is Ada loosing?

[world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian)]

   The question shouldn't be so much that "Is Ada loosing?", but rather

"Can a language nurtured in a socialist environment (Ada) compete with
a language nurtured in a free market environment (C/C++)?"  

Note this shifts the argument (as I have been long arguing, apparently to
myself) away from language syntax and semantics, and towards language
socioeconomics.

Posed this way, one answer would be that "Ada started in at most fourth
place (after Cobol, Fortran, and C/C++) and will never catch up".

C/C++ is an imperfect language that thrives because its flaws creates
markets for software tools that create more use of the language and more
tools, etc., resulting in a thriving market. (One of the early claims of
some Ada vendors was that you didn't need many software tools to use Ada.)
C/C++ is an open language, constantly being debated, as well as its
environments and methodologies, subject to the evolutionary forces of the
free markets.  Ada is hostage to a bureacracy that suppresses criticism
and ignores free markets.

Thus, if you had money to invest in a software company, would you do it
for Ada or C/C++?

Greg Aharonian
-- 
**************************************************************************
Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimiztion
P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178