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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.69.27.71 with SMTP id je7mr5741348pbd.2.1428546961836; Wed, 08 Apr 2015 19:36:01 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.140.99.44 with SMTP id p41mr397511qge.3.1428546961553; Wed, 08 Apr 2015 19:36:01 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.glorb.com!l13no2805897iga.0!news-out.google.com!a41ni24qgf.1!nntp.google.com!z60no454125qgd.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2015 19:36:01 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=50.138.108.113; posting-account=yiWntAoAAAC1KqC_shmxJYv07B9l6LNU NNTP-Posting-Host: 50.138.108.113 References: <87h9t95cly.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net><04f0759d-0377-4408-a141-6ad178f055ed@googlegroups.com> <871tk1z62n.fsf@theworld.com><87oan56rpn.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net><877fts7fvm.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net><87twwv66pk.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net><32ecaopodr1g.1xqh7ssdpa2ud.dlg@40tude.net><87pp7j62ta.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net><87pp7hb2xo.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net><5rxvgyes5xg8.1mqq86gacbsb1.dlg@40tude.net><87lhi5ayuv.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net> <87oan0aote.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net> <878ue3ff6y.fsf@jester.gateway.sonic.net> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Languages don't matter. A mathematical refutation From: David Botton Injection-Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2015 02:36:01 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:25481 Date: 2015-04-08T19:36:01-07:00 List-Id: <> Not really Then, now and always, the reality is that the decision of what language to = use is based on: 1) What tools and libraries to get things done exist. What Ichibiah called = interfaces and clearly complained about their lack (see his famous letter t= o the 9X group). Most often the libraries/tools are found first and the lan= guage is dictated exclusively by this. (Rails, Django, Chip vendor's compil= er, OS native language like objective-C / Swift, etc.) 2) What the staff whines about to their management that they want to use or= are willing to use, usually because of popularity or next job prospects, s= ometimes because of technical reasons. The only things that can override this are: 1. Mandates (and not really...) 2. Cost factors So reality is that if Ada provides important #1s and cultivates #2 which is= more about popularity and curiosity of staff can be generated than you get= more Ada use. So if you feel Ada would benefit the world of programming (or want your fut= ure jobs to be in Ada), you need to work on #1 and #2 as your marketing str= ategy not trying to see who can throw the "C" ball the farthest. It's a popularity contest (ok and about greasing palms, like with free stuf= f for key people) always has been. <> Even in the niche market the last Ada vendor is still managing to swim in, = the 2 factors of decision I mentioned are key. I watched people do so many = stupid things with Java when it came out just because it was new and cool t= o know that unless those people you don't think will ever use Ada start thi= nking Ada is cool enough to want to try, than Ada will flat line soon enoug= h. (and so my campaign for a face lift and some cool tools that I'm working= on, to popularize an alternative free compiler suite, etc. I hope others w= ill also think up some cool new bindings, libraries and tools to work on, o= r extend what others are doing and popularize their efforts). David Botton