Re: A proposal for Debian policy for Ada

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote on comp.lang.ada:
> On Wed, 19 May 2010 03:41:06 -0700 (PDT), Ludovic Brenta wrote:
>> Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
>>> On Wed, 19 May 2010 05:22:35 -0400, Stephen Leake wrote:
>>>> As Ludovic points out, that does not cover the entire Linux Ada community.
>
>>> We need not to cover it, we need those who maintain distributions. Even
>>> less than that, only those who determine policy rules for Ada. It is likely
>>> less than one dozen.
>
>> Dmitry, I like it when people have grandiose ideas on how to change
>> the world but I like it better when they actually do it.  So please,
>> now that you've identified the problem pretty well, go ahead and send
>> the invitations.
>
> I am not a maintainer, not even a regular Linux user. If maintainers don't
> want it, then they don't. No need for other reasons. After all there is the
> Linux Standard Base project. In ten years they may come up with something,
> and then force Ada maintainers to something more usable.

I don't think they will even in 20 years. The Linux Standards Base is,
by design, a lowest common denominator and Ada is probably well below
their radar.  If they ever hear about Ada and GNAT, they'll probably
think this is a "specialized" language and tool best left outside
their standards.

Also, in the Free Software world, you must scratch your own itch; you
cannot just assume that someone else will.

On a purely theoretical level, I am all in favor of more and unified
support for Ada in all GNU/Linux distributions.  But this vision can
only be fulfilled when someone who really wants this problem solved
does the work.  When such a person comes along I will gladly
cooperate.

--
Ludovic Brenta.