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,de4046858a88bacb X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!eweka.nl!lightspeed.eweka.nl!195.114.231.69.MISMATCH!feeder.news-service.com!news.motzarella.org!motzarella.org!not-for-mail From: "I. Levashew" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada OS Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:52:13 +0600 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1251; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: feeder.motzarella.org U2FsdGVkX1/KP2zamI1TV/DSFtJUkVMRc5WWL+oSb8GOWIHjyzszcn5LJHwyiqmeSgcc4oXSQmOWlCkqlsLp6Lv99PBGGM6HYrq//tT6NhzcgyNL+iW1Tig6vVJSCsGiSNGQIaMdaHbtPMVJmgmdYg== X-Complaints-To: Please send complaints to abuse@motzarella.org with full headers NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:53:38 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: X-Auth-Sender: U2FsdGVkX18SwpOMkCcpPvr3ufU2Hs+pqxxyGOa07QMEsVENttkH9g== Cancel-Lock: sha1:cstM9eISdNcinRfIWo73ghwV3So= User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (Macintosh/20071031) Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19013 Date: 2007-12-20T13:52:13+06:00 List-Id: Peter Hermann �����: > Randy Brukardt mentioned the idea of an operating system all in Ada > which he ranked as unrealistic. Well, it isn't. I'm a bit more optimistic about it. What if we choose a bit another way of accomplishing this non-easy goal? What I mean: not to do it from scratch, but reengineer existing system. Infect Open Source. It's about motivation. How much effort one must spend to get any result. I think the one willing to see something rewritten in Ada should concentrate on providing easy way to infect C programs. That is, it should be easy to get any open source tarball-distributed utility and put a bit of Ada source into it. It should be benefittable to write addons in Ada, not in C or C++. Once the society realize that many tarballs contain Ada code, Ada may become more common PL than ever. Currently we can obtain (for example) Leopard double-layer(!) install DVD. Install DVD always contain developer tools. There is Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl/Tk, etc inside. But on the whole double-layer DVD there wasn't any GNAT despite being part of main GCC distribution. Ada lock-ins will ensure higher availability of GNAT. There were times when Perl was the only scripting PL widely used in *NIX ("Swiss Army Chainsaw" of *NIX). Now we can see Perl and Python sharing this niche. What if the same thing to some extent is applicable to Ada? I'd like to start infecting projects that are not developed anymore, but still used. That way : a) original authors shouldn't care about inclusion of Ada in sources b) Ada programs wouldn't be rare aliens. ShakesPeer, a Direct Connect client for Mac OS X have all the repertoire of bugs specific to (Objective)C. Will it be rewritten in Ada, it'll become better, thus raising reputation of Ada. (For several reasons writing something in Ada is insanely difficult on Mac OS X, so I can't even get started doing it.) If there was many successful experiences of C(++) project converted to Ada, idea of rewritting C(++)->Ada would be more popular. Thus we could have much more coder hands willing to rewrite. It's just a wild idea.