Re: Feasibility of using Ada in new development

[Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@acm.org>]

blaw@mkisserve.com (Robert Law) writes:

> I would like to start by saying my message is not an attempt to start
> a flame war or anything like that.

Ok, good :).

> I've been programming for years using everything from COBOL, RPG, C,
> Java, PHP, etc. I've written a number of business applications,
> usually accounting ones. (That's the advantage of having more than
> twenty years of experience.) 

I don't follow, but ok.

> I'm at the point in my life where I want to pursue a dream I've had
> for years of having my own software development company, basically a
> VAR or ISV.

Cool.

> I want to use a language that meets the following criteria:
> 
> 1. It must be reliable.

Hmm. Usually it's the compiler and run-time that need to be reliable.
Perhaps you mean "the language makes it easy to write reliable
applications"?

> 2. It must be supported.

Again, it's the tools that must be supported.

> 3. It must be usuable to develop applications in a graphical
> environment.  Basically Motif, GTK, or KDE.

The development environment is graphical, or the target application? I
guess you mean the target application. I notice you don't mention MS
Windows; is that _not_ a possible target?

> 4. It must be usuable to develop programs used via a browser. 

I'll assume you mean an HTML or "web" browser. The Windows or KDE file
window is a "file browser".
 
> 5. It must be able to interface with relational databases either
> through a standard interface or ODBC.

Hmm. ODBC _is_ a "standard" interface. I think you meant "native
interface or ODBC".

> 6. It would be nice if it was somewhat object oriented. I'm not an
> object oriented purist, but it does have some nice features. I
> especially like its automatic garbage collection of no lonter used
> variable.

"no longer used variable" or "no longer used object that was
explicitly allocated on the heap"? Those are two very different
things.

> I don't care much whether or not there are millions of programmers
> that know how to use it.  Any programmer worth their salt would be
> willing to learn and become proficient in a new language.

Right.

> I do want it to be a language that is efficient yet doesn't give you
> a rope with a noose or a loaded, cocked, gun when you use it.

Perhaps you mean "the language makes it easy to write code that is CPU
time-efficient (or maybe code space or data space efficient), while
still catching common errors".

> You can see that I'm leary of C and C++. I have used them, and
> continue to use them, but I'm not at all sure that I want to use
> them to develop business applicatons. I'm tired of reading about
> buffer overflows.

Right.

> I have played around somewhat with Ada but by no means am I an
> expert. I'm concerned that Ada may be starting to fade into
> obscurity. 

Why is that a problem? You said you don't mind if there are not
millions of other programmers. Perhaps you are worried about support
for tools disappearing?

> If I get my company going (I know its a BIG if), I want to use the
> language for years and not chase after every silver bullet that
> comes along.

Right.

> I'm interested in your comments and ideas, especially about Ada being
> able to meet my requirements.

Ada can meet all of these requirements. Contact Ada Core technologies,
or any other vendor, and ask for a support quote, and a sales pitch on
why they'll still be around in 10 years. See www.adaic.com for a list
of vendors, and other useful stuff about Ada.

Writing GUI and Web applications in Ada is certainly doable, but will
_not_ be as easy as in a .NET or Java language, because of the
available libraries of components in those languages. But if you
value reliability over time-to-market, and don't mind writing such
components from scratch, Ada is a good choice.

Ada does not have "automatic garbage collection", but it is often not
necessary to use heap objects, and it is easy to write a controlled
container that does the garbage collection correctly and efficiently.
Such containers are also available, either in Open Source or for
purchase.

-- 
-- Stephe