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,d89b08801f2aacae X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-05-03 15:09:43 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!colt.net!diablo.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!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: Is strong typing worth the cost? Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 09:46:41 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: References: <9gBz8.4054$%r1.2380315867@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com> <3CD01D32.19D997B0@san.rr.com> <3CD1652C.5A4736@san.rr.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1020433602 22383 136.170.200.133 (3 May 2002 13:46:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 May 2002 13:46:42 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:23516 Date: 2002-05-03T13:46:42+00:00 List-Id: By "niche-market" I mean that it is not responsible for, say, 60% of all software written everywhere. I'm not sure why that doesn't seem obvious. Does one regularly see, say 1/3 of all programmer positions offered in the newspaper being for Smalltalk or Forth programmers? By that standard, I am simultaneously including Ada in the "niche-market" category. The point is this: If you want to study the impact of Ada vs C++, it is a lot easier to find something that is being done in C++ (because of the large number of projects) where you can possibly inject Ada into the mix and see if it works better. Likewise, one might compare Smalltalk to C++ by finding a C++ project that could be supplanted or duplicated in some manner. But if Ada doesn't have the same massive following as C++ and Smalltalk doesn't have as massive a following as C++ are you going to be able to find an opportunity to replace Smalltalk with Ada or the other way around? One can always contrive experiments, but a lot of industry studies are done based on some practical project(s) where enough information is available to look at and get an understanding of what happens. You might have a dozen similar C++ products in a company and somehow convince management "Hey, let's do the next one in Ada and see if it works better..." and because of similarity you might be able to draw some conclusions that Ada did a better/worse job. That's the kind of scenario I was thinking of. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com "Darren New" wrote in message news:3CD1652C.5A4736@san.rr.com... > > Errr, this is odd. What do you think the "niche market" is for Smalltalk > or Forth? Do you really think Smalltalk's market is more of a "niche" > than Ada's? > > Now, if you'd said that Atlas is a niche language, or Postscript is a > niche language, or YACC is a niche language, I'd agree with you. But by > what criterion is Smalltalk or Forth a niche language? >