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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,e7151167e0767ecc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!postnews2.google.com!not-for-mail From: danmcleran@hotmail.com (Dan McLeran) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Feasibility of using Ada in new development Date: 3 Sep 2004 07:56:00 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: References: <8429999a.0408231027.2850e800@posting.google.com> <19b0e504.0408251305.73ed26c8@posting.google.com> <87brgxkbol.fsf@insalien.org> <19b0e504.0408280957.5e266d7@posting.google.com> <877jrjhzx4.fsf@insalien.org> <19b0e504.0408300906.15164bf3@posting.google.com> <19b0e504.0408310911.1e885c26@posting.google.com> <0Q2Zc.2443$TG.1908@trndny01> <19b0e504.0409020718.40a57082@posting.google.com> <9tednWJ_s_4bBarcRVn-qw@megapath.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.55.20.36 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1094223360 23628 127.0.0.1 (3 Sep 2004 14:56:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 14:56:00 +0000 (UTC) Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3292 Date: 2004-09-03T07:56:00-07:00 List-Id: > Why not? I still use the circa 1985 MS-DOS editor and batch files to > program; the Janus/Ada compiler provides everything else that I need (mostly > good program creating support). You must have a high pain-tolerance. > all the GUI will do there is make it more likely to > lose the settings (because they're in some obscure settings file in the > registry or some remote directory, rather than in a batch file that gets > backed up daily with the source code...) I would hope a high-quality IDE would not. > That said, I understand the many modern programmers are looking for GUIs to > hold their hands, and certainly we support that. Maybe not hold my hand but at least help speed up tedious tasks. > Ada tools aren't a hindrance (and the rules of the language make building > programs trivial in any Ada compiler - compare gnatmake to the complicated > make scripts used to build C++ programs). The only problem is that they > don't necessarily give the comfort programmers are now expecting. I would agree, they aren't a hinderance but they aren't a whole lot of help either. I would also agree that programmers now expect their IDE to help them write software. The bar is being set higher in this area and tool vendors can either keep up or get left behind. > Of course, that's just part of a general dumping-down of programming. And > that's what managers want: they want any idiot to be able to build software, > so they can hire minimum wage people (or outsource) to do the job. But > you're never going to get anything well-designed and maintainable that way. I assume you made a typo above and mean dumbing-down? I'm not sure I agree that tool vendors who make tools to make programming easier are attempting to dumb-down programmers. As far as managers go, that may be the case. I agree that you cannot outsource software to the lowest bidder and then get something great out of it. I don't know about you, but I would be a little nervous if I found out that the software inside of the 777 I was about to board was given to the lowest bidder. If this is the case in reality, don't tell me.