Re: Seeking advice

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

Jeffrey Creem <jeff@thecreems.com> wrote in message
news:Rjs1a.41363$2H6.1100@sccrnsc04...
> > 3. Is interest in ADA increasing/remaining steady/decreasing?  For
> example,
> > will ADA still have significant support in, say, five years?
>
> Support in 5 years..Yes.. Increasing/Decressing..  Unclear..Within 5 years
> Sun will be gone. Java will be a memory. Everyone will be using .Net and
C#
> (or A# :)....  Ok..I have no way of knowing this but I think there is a
> better chance that there will be significant Ada support available in 5
> years than there is that Sun will be around and strong.
>
Its impossible to know the future, but you've got to figure that there are
enough large-scale, long lived projects done in Ada that it isn't going to
go away any time soon. With GNAT out there in source form, support becomes
less of an issue because you can always do it yourself or pay someone to do
it for you if you really find a desparate need. (O.K., it gets more
expensive, but you are not high & dry.) Besides, I really don't know why
there is such a hand wringing over support anyway. You typically may need
*some* support in the early stages of a project but once the project
matures, you're not in trouble with an unsupported product because you
aren't doing much but tweaking and fixing things anyway. If you're
constantly starting new jobs in Ada, then hey, you're the customer base
keeping the supporting companies alive! :-)

Besides, it would seem that we've been getting increased traffic on this
newsgroup over time so maybe Ada is on an upswing?


>
> > 4. Are there any graphics libraries which are supported on multiple
> > platforms (preferably Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris)?
>
> GtkAda...But if you really mean supported then we start talking some more
> cash with some expensive support contracts.
>
That depends on what the meaning of the word "Graphics Libraries" is...
GtkAda is going to be pretty suitable for building GUIs and maybe some light
duty 2D kind of drawing (although I've never used it for that, so I can't
say for sure...) If someone wants to do some kind of slick, 3D animations
and the like, I'm pretty sure GtkAda is going to fall short.

If there is a need for more sophisticated graphics, Ada should be able to
bind to most commercial libraries that are out there. Its possible
commercial vendors may have bindings already built. That's kind of a lousy
answer because the interface may be very unnatural for Ada and it creates
more work and means you're always lagging behind with new releases of the
library. If you get enough advantages from Ada on the rest of the app, it
may be worth biting the bullet on the graphics library.

MDC
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Marin David Condic
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