Re: Language support for flexible handling of system-detected errors.

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

Wes: Would I flame you? :-)

Think about it this way: You are already an Ada programmer and possibly
within your realm of endeavors, Ada is just fine. When I was doing embedded
systems in Ada, I was just fine with the available technology as well - O.K.
maybe I wished it was targeted at more processors, but basically I got stuff
with the compiler that was equivalent or better than what I got with some
other language.

But then there are a bunch of non-Ada programmers out there. What do they
want and what might Ada provide to get them inside the tent? I know a number
of programmers who are personally rather fond of Ada, but that won't use it
in developing their products because they get so much more leverage out of
some other environment. Saying to them: "Ada is better, but you don't have
as well -integrated an IDE, you don't have a bunch of class libraries, you
don't have a GUI, and you'll have to futz with the interface to the OS
because its not written in Ada, etc., etc., etc..." doesn't get you real
far. They'll rightly observe that the mission isn't to use Ada, but rather,
to get the job done. If another language with another set of tools gets them
there faster/better/cheaper, guess which way they go?

Hence, I think its important to discover what developers like about the
IDE's they have available to them & I think Ada ought to take that under
advisement... :-)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"Wes Groleau" <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:3CA86EA0.9BDF2EFD@despammed.com...
>
> This is true.  Why has it not happened?  Because up to now,
> no Ada developers with the time and ability to create one
> has felt enough need to want to do so.
>
> If one existed, I'd grab it.  But--flame me if you want--
> I do OK without it and can't see anything I can give up
> to make room for that as a project.
>
> I suspect I am not alone--else the tool would already exist.
>