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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-30 08:21:56 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!iad-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!iad-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!kilgallen From: Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language Message-ID: References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> <9k3l9r$10i2$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B656345.64AB603A@sneakemail.com> <9k3oa1$2qg8$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B657715.7EC592D9@sneakemail.com> Organization: LJK Software Date: 30 Jul 2001 11:21:32 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.44.122.34 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: iad-read.news.verio.net 996506495 216.44.122.34 (Mon, 30 Jul 2001 15:21:35 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 15:21:35 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10752 Date: 2001-07-30T11:21:32-05:00 List-Id: In article <3B657715.7EC592D9@sneakemail.com>, Russ Paielli <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com> writes: > Larry Kilgallen wrote: >> >> One of the best things about Ada is stability. There have only been two >> versions of the standard, and vendor extensions are well under control. > >> There are many things that can be done to make Ada more popular outside >> the language definition. Any changes to the language pale by comparison >> in their effect. Making Ada more popular would not be desireable if it >> hurt the clarity and correctness advantages Ada has now. > > My proposal is deliberately designed to have a minimal effect on > stability. As I said, a relatively simple preprocessor would be able to > translate back and forth between Ada95 and the syntax I am proposing. If > you want to continue to use Ada95 syntax, you could do so with impunity. > What's the problem? There is no problem, as a previous poster indicated, for you to devise a syntactic equivalent to Ada. Using keywords in French would be one example. You can translate back and forth, but I don't think others will be attracted to the RUSS language. > I read recently that only one in ten new DoD WEAPONS programs is even > choosing Ada now that the DoD mandate has been dropped. Don't even ask > about DoD accounting and supply-chain management programs! Certainly those decisions are not made on the basis of the symbols used for syntax. Personally I am not particularly concerned with DoD. Consider railway and subway controls, where Europe seems to use Ada more certainly than the US. Perhaps some years from now the US will commission a study regarding greater safety on the European rail systems. Perhaps not. But in the meantime, there are more immediate problems like the recent Microsoft IIS buffer overflow problem. > I am trying to sell Ada for a safety-critical program, and I am getting > little or no support from my organization. Perhaps you are not the successful salesman type. I know that I am not. I see some things in unrelated areas that are sold for no good reason at all. > I am new to Ada, and I believe that gives me a certain perspective that > Ada veterans lack. I am making a proposal that could save the best > programming language around, and all I get is a bunch of irrelevant > criticism. Think of it as a sampling of what wider opinion would be like. One can write voice-of-doom headlines criticizing Ada for switching directions according to your scenario. One can also write such headlines about many other scenarios. The best thing most people can do for Ada is to write one great program in Ada and let the results stand for themselves.