Re: ada and robots

[gwinn@res.ray.com (Joe Gwinn)]

In article <JSA.97Jun4200305@alexandria.organon.com>,
jsa@alexandria.organon.com (Jon S Anthony) wrote:

> > Not all Ada compilers offer adequate support for such mixed-language
> 
> All Ada95 compilers do.

That has not been our experience, especially when debugging of tasks
containing procedures in different languages.  The common (and inadequate)
solution is two independent and isolated debugging systems, one per
language, with no way to follow the thread of execution whereever it may
go.  We can use such a system, but why would we?  Getting systems to work
is hard enough as it is.


> > likely cause the Ada compiler and tools market to shrink to perhaps as
> > little as one tenth of its prior size, and that significant added
> > investment in Ada compilers and tools is therefore unlikely, at least
> 
> Nothing like good ol' FUD.  These 1/10's and 1/100's are just pulled
> from where the sun doesn't shine.  Where are the studies?  Quote them
> please.

Been reading them for years.  Some came from the Ada Joint Program
Office.  Don't have the references right at hand.  Do you have any studies
that say that Ada exceeds C?  I hope not.  They cannot be right.  The
difference isn't 10%, it's at least 10:1.  If if were the case that the
markets of C and Ada were in rough parity, we wouldn't get laughed at when
we ask various COTS vendors if they have an Ada interface to their
product.

Go into any technical bookstore and measure the relative shelf space
devoted to the various languages.  That's as good a metric as any, and
easy.  The stores know what does and does not sell, and the stores don't
care what the books are about, so long as people buy them.


> > until the size of the remaining market becomes clear.  A significant
> > shrink is widely expected
> 
> By who (or is that "whom"?)?  In any event, the opposite has seemed to
> have been happening.  This is largely the result of free and cheap
> compilers with full typical Windoze IDEs - check Aonix for example:
> http://www.thomsoft.com/Products/Ada/ada.html

People I have talked to.  Haven't seen anything published just yet, but
the mandate issue just came up.  I don't really believe that the market
share of Ada has been growing realtive to C/C++.  Do you?  


> Also, only in the land of software would anyone actually suggest that
> one should not use a better tool, technique, process, whatever to
> build your product, because most of your _competition_ is using the
> inferior tool, technique, process, whatever.

Ah, it depends on your definition of "better".  The basic issue in how
good the tools are for a language is simply the size of that language's
market.  The technical details of the language are basically irrelevant,
and the best language doesn't necessarily win.


Joe Gwinn