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,ac39a12d5faf5b14 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 11232c,877ba3d67e73c6c3 X-Google-Attributes: gid11232c,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-19 08:03:25 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!skynet.be!skynet.be!news-x2.support.nl!psinet-eu-nl!psiuk-p4!uknet!psiuk-p3!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,misc.misc Subject: Re: Rant! (was) Development process in the Ada community Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:05:25 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: References: <3CB46975.90408@snafu.de> <3CB9375F.8040904@snafu.de> <3CB9AF3C.8030301@snafu.de> <3CBC5281.1040202@snafu.de> <3CBDAAA9.5050302@snafu.de> <555f76f7dd67c7f1678e027353d1a6a1.48257@mygate.mailgate.org> <3CBDE85F.9ACFD30@san.rr.com> <3CBE0457.6E7B82A8@san.rr.com> <75e7bccb730eda7db554601b66ba9814.48257@mygate.mailgate.org> <4519e058.0204180554.67fb8343@posting.google.com> <5b41d17f3dcf632de26b5ef06daf0650.48257@mygate.mailgate.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1019156725 8979 136.170.200.133 (18 Apr 2002 19:05:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 18 Apr 2002 19:05:25 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:22785 misc.misc:6676 Date: 2002-04-18T19:05:25+00:00 List-Id: "Kent Paul Dolan" wrote in message news:5b41d17f3dcf632de26b5ef06daf0650.48257@mygate.mailgate.org... > > Doesn't this become a self fulfilling prophesy? "Ada doesn't do > graphics well (yet) so we don't do the graphics in Ada (ever). Nobody is > doing graphic in Ada (yet), so it isn't important for Ada to have strong > graphics capabilities (ever)." > True, but its not as if there are lots of languages out there that have large-scale, standardized, built-in graphics capabilities of the sort that one might use to build flight simulators. C/C++ doesn't really have graphics as a "standard". They just get it because things like Windows and Motif are all written in C/C++, so it sort of gets viewed as just part of the environment. Lots of add-on, sophisticated graphics packages are similarly C/C++ so people tend to view it as spitting into the wind to use any other language. I'm definitely not against the proposition that Ada could/should include some kind of graphics support as some sort of convention/standard, but we have to admit that this is the kind of thing that is difficult to make portable across a wide number of platforms. As a result, we might just have to settle for some minimal level of support (a "graphics microkernel"?), and look to build on top of that. In time, the set of things that can be supported across a wide set of platforms might just expand and get more sophisticated, but if we want a language extension that isn't platform specific, that's probably the way it will have to be. The alternative is to define a whole execution environment for Ada programs (ala Java) with its own windowing/graphics scheme. That's not necessarily a bad idea, but its going to have its own set of problems and issues. I'd settle for a lesser solution that got the ball rolling. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com