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[Michal Nowak <vinnie@inetia.pl>]

On 01-06-16, at 09:57, Gary Scott  wrote: 

>Hi,
>
>It seems to me that in today's market, for a language to survive and be
>used in anything but a niche manner, requires making the masses aware.

Yes, you're right. This could be a complex problem, because now we have
vicious circle (deadlock). There is small number (in compare to C++)
of Ada programmers. Because there is not enough Ada programmers, 
companies do not undertake projects in Ada, instead taking C++. Because
there are no job opportunities in Ada people (I think mostly computer
science students) do not learn Ada. There are not taught Ada in 
universities (or they just have short introduction where they do not
get best aspects of Ada, but just some comparision to C++). They are
not taught, because it is almost impossible to get Ada books in their
native language. There is no books, because small percent of people
needs it, so the publishers will have no profit. 
	Yes, I agree, that promotional campain can be a solution. The
most important points in this chain are companies and students.
The companies should know about all Ada advantages, about that Ada
programs are less error-proneand therefore reliable, that maintenace 
is simpler, and that all this leads to increased income. Because I'm
still a student I try to point what to do at student's side. I had
2 lectures about Ada on VIII semester. There was a little project on
laboratories to do. I caught Ada, most of my friends no. I tried to
encourage to write programs in Ada, but in most cases do not succeeded.
The answers I got :
1. "Ada is strange. I do not understand it. There are some nice things,
   but I cannot write my programs easily".
2. "There is no job in Ada. Why waste time for learning it?"
3. "Is it only for console applications? There is not GUI support for it.
   Who will use such applications?"
My conclusions:
- Group 1. After writing in C/C++ and Java for three years they are so 
familiar with these languaes, that new, different language is totally
strange to them. Theye are able to write quite complex apllications in
C++/Java. They tried to do it at once in Ada and had difficulites on
start. It may be difficult to switch "thinking style" from  C++ to Ada. 
Ada should be tauhgt earlier, on III/IV semester, maybe parallel with 
C++, so students can compare both.
- Group 2. Hmm, they had some truth in it. I told them about job 
possibilities abroad. "But I do not want to work abroad". I don't know
if it is possible, but maybe there are kind of projects and companies 
allow to work on it remotely - so it is possible to write code on own
computer and send it to employer.
- Group 3. I told them about GtkAda, about how portable it is. They 
needed something like Borland Builder or MSVC++. Sound of their voice
indicated, that they would not use such a product for Ada, even if it
exist. They are lost and will not get back from integrated environments
world, but such product can encourage people to reach for Ada. I prefer
commandline tools, because I have control on all compilation process,
but maybe complex environments can be useful for others.

>The very small numbers of people using news groups may be highly aware
>of what's available (and possibly what's superior), but less than 2
>percent of the 2000 or so programmers at my company are aware that Ada
>is even an option for students and would never consider using it for
>their personal projects, even though a significant portion of them are
>required to use it at work.  They have no idea about GNAT or ADAPOWER. 
>All they know is M$oft promotes the heck out of C++ and it's available
>at Best Buy, CompUSA, and Fry's, and "management is forcing me to use a
>dead language".

Yes, really awful situation. I don't why, but after writing some projects
in Ada, they should be familiar with it, so it should not be easier to 
them to write Ada code. They writing in Ada, and do not know about GNAT
or ADAPOWER? 

>Ada SHOULD have a better chance of putting a dent in C++ usage
>than my favorite (dead) language, but doesn't seem to be doing as well,
>at least in the last 3-5 years.  

I don't know what's you favourite language (looks it is Fortran), but
I wish you well. I don't know recent situation in Ada, because im totally
newbie in this world, but for me it looks that Ada has stabile, strong
position of good language.

------------------------
Mike Nowak
mailto: vinnie@inetia.pl