Re: why ada is so unpopular ?

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic.brenta@insalien.org>]

"Luke A. Guest" <laguest@n_o_p_o_r_k_a_n_d_h_a_m.abyss2.demon.co.uk> writes:

> On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 12:15:35 +0100, Szymon Guz wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > I'd like to know how ada is popular ? And i which countries. I'm asking 
> > because I live in Poland and here I couldn't find any firm that use it.
> 
> Well, I wouldn't say that Ada is unpopular. There are other factors to
> take into consideration:
> 
> 1) Management don't know about Ada.
> 2) Management tend to want the programmers to use languages that are the
> current fad, i.e. C/C++.

In my view their attitude is more cynical than that.  The reason why
they want programmers to use "mainstream" languages is so they can
replace programmers easily without retraining.  They want programmers
to be disposable and interchangeable just like a piece of commodity
hardware.  They don't mind that their language of choice has an
adverse effect on the quality of software, because they're interested
in selling bug fixes, upgrades and maintenance.  They also don't mind
that disposable programmers will produce disposable software.  They're
in fact quite happy about it.

I don't like to sound so pessimistic, but I've actually gotten a
manager to admit openly to all of the above.  Now that was at a very
large company that makes enterprise data storage products.  I was not
a nuclear, aerospace, or rail company.  I hope there are still
companies that try to produce quality software.

> 3) I had to learn Ada at uni and I had no idea about before then. I
> actually love the language, It has so many features not found anywhere
> else that are (IMO) necessary for development.

Yes.  Furthermore, I have found that people who learn Ada often change
their attitude regarding software development.  They no longer want to
develop junk, disposable software; instead they want to develop
quality software that lasts.

(yes, there are many people who actually like developing disposable
software; those are the ones who promote and improve on scripting
languages like Perl or Python to a point where they change from being
prototyping languages to being implementation languages).

> 4) Programmers learn what is required of them.
> 5) The DoD (supposedly) dropped all support for Ada and this then looks
> (to the outsider) that the language is dead.
> 
> I think that if enough programmers get to know Ada, I think that better
> programming standards will emerge, but it's up to those who know it
> and those who can tell others about it to spread the word and make sure
> that others start to use it.
> 
> Luke.

I would like to see more free software developed in Ada.  The free
software world does not try to produce disposable software, and
therefore would benefit from a language that helps improve quality.
Perhaps, that way, Ada will become a little bit more mainstream.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.