From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,da46977c58c329df X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-01-31 09:55:50 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!feeder.qis.net!btnet-peer!btnet-peer0!btnet!psiuk-p2!psiuk-p3!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada's Slide To Oblivion ... Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 10:02:58 -0500 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: References: <3C58AE09.7070503@worldnet.att.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1012489380 6419 136.170.200.133 (31 Jan 2002 15:03:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Jan 2002 15:03:00 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19428 Date: 2002-01-31T15:03:00+00:00 List-Id: "Jim Rogers" wrote in message news:3C58AE09.7070503@worldnet.att.net... > > article I find one assumption is that people know Ad as > well as C, and have made a conscious decision toward C and > away from Ada. I do not believe this assumption is even > approximately true. > Some part of the decision may be subconscious - many people just use what they know or what has gone before or what came with their development board. Others may have given Ada passing consideration, having heard rumors about it, etc. and at least consciously said "I don't want to use Ada because..." Still others may have given serious evaluation to Ada and even considered it to be superior in many respects, but abandoned it because they just couldn't get it for the platforms for which they were developing. (Remember, this was about embedded systems in particular. This makes the picture significantly different from workstation/PC development.) > > My contention is that Ada has never slid into oblivion. > In fact, Ada is slowly climbing out of the initial > oblivion into which it was born. > It may be climbing out of oblivion - but probably more in the Workstation/PC application world than in the embedded world. I suspect the numbers cited in the article are pretty close to reality for embedded systems. Maybe its really 4% instead of 2% of embedded development going on in Ada. Maybe the 2% consists of really big important projects and the 98% are much smaller software efforts. We could dispute the exact precision of the numbers all day long, but I don't think anyone will contend that it is really more like 25%. Ada is just a small sliver of the embedded market and almost nonexistant outside of DoD embedded work. (Depending, of course, on how you want to count it.) It would help Ada in the embedded world if there were more SBCs available with at least Ada as an option for compiler choice. If, for example, the SBC were to come with the gcc/Gnat compiler built so that developers could choose to use C, C++ or Ada & still have access to all the development tools, it might stand a chance. But look at what ships with most SBC development kits: Some version of C or maybe C++. Never mind that if someone *really* wanted to use Ada, they could cobble together a kit for themselves out of parts available from the Internet. The mission of embedded computing isn't to use some specific language - its to ship a working product out the door. Spending weeks or months getting a development environment together when one already comes with the kit is a waste of the stockholder's money. Its not impossible for Ada to get used for embedded development - but it sure needs first and formost to be *available* as a choice. Then it needs to overcome all the usual objections, but at least it can play in the market. It wouldn't hurt if there was some easily assembled student-level development kit. That way, Ada would be targeting the developers who don't already have built in biases and who will soon be making decisions about what to use on "real" projects. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com Web: http://www.mcondic.com/