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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a1ce307c10055549 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-12-16 15:01:25 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed.arcor-online.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!206.228.249.12!not-for-mail From: Ed Cogburn Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: IBM Acquires Rational Ada Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 18:01:09 -0500 Message-ID: References: <3DF1615C.7AAAC86E@adaworks.com> <3DF1B042.6603DDDE@easystreet.com> <3DF2A483.EC512CDF@adaworks.com> <8db3d6c8.0212091445.12594821@posting.google.com> <3DF628C4.7090607@cogeco.ca> <3DF6653D.3030603@cogeco.ca> <8db3d6c8.0212101850.51506572@posting.google.com> <3DFE1FF7.6010009@cogeco.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.228.249.12 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1040079672 436126 206.228.249.12 (16 [49761]) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1) Gecko/20021130 In-Reply-To: <3DFE1FF7.6010009@cogeco.ca> Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:31924 Date: 2002-12-16T18:01:09-05:00 List-Id: Warren W. Gay VE3WWG wrote: > Marin David Condic wrote: > >> I have nothing against character-cell terminals & applications. I >> think they >> have a number of advantages such as those outlined here and elsewhere. >> The >> problem is that if one is looking to build a library of useful things >> for a >> language to offer developers that might help generate interest in the >> language, I just don't see that as a thing that should be at all at >> the top >> of the list. The idea ought to be to look at what changes in the industry >> are likely to need support 5 to 10 years from now and get out in front of >> that rather than look backwards and try to support development for old >> hardware. It might be useful and I wouldn't object to its existence, >> but I'd >> think other things ought to come first. >> >> MDC > > > I don't entirely disagree with you here, but disagree on one point. > > If you fail to support "essential" levels of library support, > then you will have some factors working against you. > > For example, if you have > the greatest GUI support, but cannot satisfy the console support, > and console support is needed (at least some of the time) > then the greatness of the GUI support becomes somewhat irrelevant. > > As an application developer who must at times > support curses type interfaces (like for console applications), if you > cannot provide this basic support for that environment, people > may look elsewhere for better overall support. Even if they don't > plan to make extensive use of it. > > Considering that text based support is rather basic, it > would seem a shame IMHO to omit this, only because it is not the > most common practice at the present time. Agreed, and consider that many people, at least on Unix, are using X11 based GUIs but are still running console apps in terminal emulators like xterm. There are still programs that do not need graphics, just as the other person is arguing about text mode apps, I can make the same argument about there being a class of apps that need more dynamic, sophisticated support for console I/O but still don't need a GUI. Plenty such programs exist and are being used, and more are being produced, despite the apparent "success" of the GUI. Building a GUI without support for current and *future* console apps would be a lack of foresight.