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 2002:a24:2c48:: with SMTP id i69mr570214iti.12.1552446765691; Tue, 12 Mar 2019 20:12:45 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:aca:ec88:: with SMTP id k130mr375762oih.155.1552446765359; Tue, 12 Mar 2019 20:12:45 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!i2pn.org!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!feeder.usenetexpress.com!feeder-in1.iad1.usenetexpress.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!82no37332itk.0!news-out.google.com!y88ni20ita.0!nntp.google.com!82no37330itk.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2019 20:12:45 -0700 (PDT) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=96.255.209.31; posting-account=zwxLlwoAAAChLBU7oraRzNDnqQYkYbpo NNTP-Posting-Host: 96.255.209.31 User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: the soul of a refreshed Ada momentum From: Optikos Injection-Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2019 03:12:45 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:55856 Date: 2019-03-12T20:12:45-07:00 List-Id: (Apparently due in part to my match-making between Microsoft's C++/WinRT an= d Microsoft's (nee Xamarin's nee Mono's) Embeddinator-4000 and my related P= itA nagging mid-2018) Microsoft is expanding its C++/WinRT endeavors to not= be merely C++ and not be merely WINMD (Windows meta-data). The generaliza= tion is called xlang, which might be pronounced ecks lang or cross lang or = trans lang or don't-care lang; I don't know which one, (but I am rooting fo= r either cross lang or trans lang). The following directory contains 8 des= ign notes that at first blush might be interesting for Ada community to par= ticipate in at this early stage to try to get more automatedly-produced API= projections into the Ada language, or more {C++, C, C#, Python, Rust} API= projections of well-crafted Ada libraries. Major portions of this project= were pushed by internal-Microsoft to public GitHub just 8 days ago, i.e., = the portions that have the check-in comment "Final C++/WinRT project struct= ure for OS ingestion (#193)". This is fresh raw red meat thrown to the pro= gramming lions to devour. https://github.com/Microsoft/xlang/tree/master/design_notes In particular in XDN03, it seems that xlang would do better to have Ada's m= ore-visionary approach to types & subtypes instead as the lingua franca (or= PL/1's approach to building up all types from bit). At the very least, Ad= a community should embrace xlang enough to steer how Ada's more sophisticat= ed approach to typing and subtyping and range-restriction would map onto xl= ang's more C-ish (DEC PDP machine-word) oriented types, such as a range-res= tricted int mapping to C++ parameterized-type integer-type with lower & upp= er bounds as integer parameters to the type. Opportunities like this to expand Ada's marketshare into non-Ada programmin= g-language territory come around only once per generation of human beings o= r so. Not since the 1990s-era dual opportunities of 1) Ada bindings to POS= IX and 2) the out-reach to unchecked C constructs in Ada95 has Ada had even= the remotest high-visibility opportunity to tout its wares directly to all= non-Ada programmers in any kind of lingua franca that tears down the barri= ers between programming languages, so that the best language for the task g= ets utilized, or better yet so that the barrier is lowered for surrounding = legacy nonAda code with better modern Ada code as part of transforming a sy= stem to eventually incrementally chip away at the nonAda guts. At the very least, Ada community should watch xlang to see whether xlang is= good enough to interop with or a stinker that should be done better via an= Ada-centric replacement for xlang. Food for thought for what a refresh of= Ada momentum could look like.