Re: Feasibility of using Ada in new development

[Mark Lorenzen <mark.lorenzen@ofir.dk>]

Adrian Hoe <AdrianHoe@nowhere.com> writes:

> Wojtek Narczynski wrote:
> >>As the matter of fact, we did worry about software which were not
> >>developed in Ada.
> >>
> >> After switching to Ada, we have freed our mind. No more worries and
> >> this let us concentrate more in developing good quality software
> >> and more time on research projects.
> >>
> >>Go for Ada!
> > Unfortunately, the world is a bit more complex, with billions lines
> > of
> > existing code, customers that don't share Ada enthusiasm, not to
> > mention library code voids.
> > Don't get me wrong. I like Ada enough to be doing a project in it
> > right now, even thought Objective-C (it's on Mac) would have been a
> > better choice (libraries, libraries, libraries, compiler problems with
> > signals).
> > But let me give you a few examples:
> > - For a program that analyzes and transforms a C program I'd use SML
> > or O'Caml, because of their library code (ckit, FrontC), and pattern
> > mathing.
> > - For linux kernel development I'd use C, because otherwise I'd have
> > zero chances to commit my work.
> > - For a web e-commerce site I'd use WebObjects (now Java, but I
> > prefered it in Obj-C), because it will be the quickest to develop.
> > - Even the most Ada-centric company in the world uses tons of legacy C
> > code, and I don't think they will rewrite it in Ada any soon. Of
> > course, that code is causing them a lot of problems, but would you
> > call their business decision to stay with it, wrong?
> > - (vicious) There's also a company that is pursuing a subset of Ada,
> > with annotations. Are they wrong, should they switch to full Ada and
> > drop their annotations?
> > - (vicious) Would you use Ada instead of VDM or Z?
> > Final example, I am sincerely interested in the resolution, you may
> > perceive it as a challenge for an Ada zealot:
> > - http://state-threads.sourceforge.net/ how would you do this in Ada
> > (thread = task)? http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/681845.html describes why
> > I would want this.
> > I really don't know wether to start a six months and up, high risk,
> > project to modify the GNAT runtime, or just use this library in C.
> > Regards,
> > Wojtek
> 
> 
> But Robert is going to develop commercial applications and most or all
> of them will be critical software for his clients business.
> 
> Just like Andrew Caroll quoted in this thread:
>  > The thing that matters is that YOU are satisfied with a few select
>  > languages and products that YOU are productive with, that they yield
>  > excellent deliverables for your customers ("productive") and that using
>  > them pays the bills.  ;-)  That's my two cents worth.
> 
> Customers don't care what you use to develop your software, what they
> care is that your software works and have their job done. Ada can
> deliver this.

Unfortunately a lot of customers demand the use of a specific
language, even though that language may not be suitable for the
problem.

> 
> I wonder if Robert Law has chosen Ada?
> -- 
> Adrian Hoe
> m a i l b o x AT a d r i a n h o e . c o m

Regards,
- Mark Lorenzen