Re: Ada's Slide To Oblivion ...

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

"Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@home.com> wrote in message
news:3C598FF1.4040706@home.com...
>
>
> I think that even for those people that gave Ada an honest try, they still
> tend to slide back into what they know best. Not only does one have to
learn
> the language, but they need time to discover the standard packages and the
> different ways things need to be done in Ada (due to its software
engineering
> restrictions that are enforced). People will make a feeble attempt to
start
> something, and then hit a wall. Time runs out and they abandon the new
approach
> for a known one, in order to get the job done.
>

But there's a way to fix that. If a bunch of Ada die-hards who are convinced
that it is a better way were to identify some niche of the embedded market
that they wanted to go for and started doing it better/faster/cheaper,
they'd start becoming very effective competition. If your competitors are
always out the door a few months ahead of you because they aren't chasing
bugs forever, you have to start wondering what they are doing that you
aren't.

I think the problem has been that the guys who like Ada aren't the ones who
go off and design embedded products. Its a double-E guy who dreams up "Hey!
I can build this nifty little board that will do this spiffy job - and oh,
yeah, I'll have to do some software to get it all to work...". What if we
Ada guys turned that around? "Hey, I've got this spiffy idea for a neat
software system and all I'll need is a couple of SBC's that can drive these
devices....." I keep kicking around a few of those ideas in my copius spare
time. :-)


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/