From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 3 Jun 93 04:32:44 GMT From: world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian) Subject: Re: How to Make Ada more widely used? Message-ID: List-Id: >I would like to start a discussion on what it would take to make >Ada a more "widely used" language than it is today. >QUESTION: >What would it take to make Ada a more "widely used" language than >it is now? Simple. Drop the Ada Mandate. It is an artificial distortion of the marketplace that has sheltered Ada from competition with other languages. Compiler prices are uncompetitive with those of other languages, no one is producing the Ada add-on libraries so useful for development in other worlds because there is no market. Not only is the Ada Mandate bad economics, but it is also bad policy, as evidence by the ongoing defections from following by many inside the armed forces. In short, because of Ada policies and not because of the language itself, Ada is uncompetitive and not attractive enough to be more widely used. Second, market and evangelize the language. Outside the Mandated world, few know much about Ada. Why? Because they rarely see Ada vendors and Ada contractors (like the entire STARS program) ever marketing Ada at trade shows and conferences. How can people be expected to make any decisions about a language they never receive information about? But the DoD doesn't care, the Ada contractors don't care and the Ada compiler vendors barely care, and what does appear is made confusing by an equal amount of C++ marketing from these same people. As a business process, the fostering of Ada has been a disaster from day one. And the same people are still in charge of stuff. Until these people are replaced by people who understand free markets, and these policies are changed, Ada use will remain stagnant. And to beat a dead horse, Ada will remain a dead, niche language as long as IBM refuses to give it as much attention as it does C++ and Smalltalk. Greg Aharonian -- ************************************************************************** Greg Aharonian Source Translation & Optimization P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178