Re: Air traffic control system in Java

["Peter C. Chapin" <PChapin@vtc.vsc.edu>]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2011, Nasser M. Abbasi wrote:

> So, why isn't any one using Ada to write GUI based applications then if 
> the GUI is there? May be because most Ada programmers are more interested 
> in system, embedded applications?

I think that's a significant reason. I see Ada as a strong systems language 
and many programs of that sort do not need GUIs. In fact it doesn't even 
make sense for them to have GUIs in many cases. Right now I'm working with 
some students on a embedded system using SPARK that will drive a 
nano-satellite. A GUI is the last thing on our minds.

This is not to say that Ada wouldn't be good at desktop applications, but 
I'm not sure GUI programming, per se, would play into the language's 
strengths. Disclaimer: I know very little about GUI programming.

As an aside one of my students mentioned to me about the recent effort to 
port Ada to Android. He was interested in this because a) he's coming to 
like Ada and b) he's taking a class on Android programming. I think it's 
great to see Ada moving into that domain. There was a posting here not long 
ago about it and I applaud those efforts.

Peter