The Ada community's attitude, was: Re: Ada, the best language with the not-so-best tool chain

[Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP>]

On 2012-10-08, Dmitry A. Kazakov <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> wrote:
> On Sun, 7 Oct 2012 22:35:23 +0000 (UTC), Simon Clubley wrote:
>
>> The hardware costs money, but it's the only thing in that list which
>> you are forced to pay money for.
>
> Yes, exactly this attitude.
>  

[I'm a professional programmer, but my use of Ada is strictly limited to
my personal own time hobbyist projects unfortunately.]

The Ada community has a choice to make.

Do you want to encourage new blood to start using Ada and hence help
ensure the future of Ada or do you want to put down the efforts of
people expressing interest in Ada because they don't do things exactly
the way you would when you have a few million USD/Euro/GBP to throw at
a project ?

Dmitry's responses in this thread have made me annoyed because they
show a lack of understanding of the requirements and mindset of people
exploring Ada and embedded systems for the first time on their own
budget.

Ada is a good language and deserves to be used much more heavily than
it is, but, regardless of all other efforts you might make, that will
not happen unless you make the Ada community a welcoming place for
newcomers.

If someone new to, say, the embedded world, is made aware that Ada is
a option then the first thing they are going to do is look to see what
community resources are available for this "new thing called Ada".

If they see a friendly community they are liable to start asking questions
and consider Ada more seriously. If they see a group of people who like
to respond with distain because the newcomer wants to do their hobby
projects using free resources when possible, then guess what, they will
move to another non-Ada option where they are made welcome.

Those other options may not be as good as Ada, but they can be made to do
the job, and those other options are what a person will think about when
they move into the workplace.

The way you go about performing a hobby project is not the way you go
about performing a safety critical project, but unless you encourage
people to start using Ada in a hobby environment, you are not going to
have a pool of people aware of, and willing to use, Ada when they enter
the workplace.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world