Re: What's stopping you from using Ada for your next commercial project?

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:35:23 +0100, Thomas L�cke wrote:

> It is good to hear Ludovic, but a system that has been in existence for
> 20+ years are not likely to be using _a lot_ of Ada 2005 features, yes?

Ada 2005 was not that big step forward.

We at cbb software GmbH have commercial projects based on 2005. The major
new features from the developer's perspective are:

1. MI (unfortunately only as interfaces)

2. Boxed generic parameters <> (in Ada 95 it was all or nothing)

3. Anonymous access types of parameters and constraints of access types
(not null, constant). Yes, we know that anonymous access types are bad, but
there is nothing to replace them right now. Ada 2012 will likely change
this.

Less usable features:

1. The return statement. You could live without it.

2. Relaxed rules on where a tagged type can be derived from. It can be
handy sometimes.

Unusable features:

1. Limited results, though we have two or three places with it, just enough
to regret about it.

2. Limited aggregates, as above.

> And if that is the case, then Maciej's point still stand: There are
> currently no Ada compilers that fully support Ada 2005.

GNAT Pro is such a compiler, at least we are using it as such.

> I still plan on sticking with Ada. It fits my needs and I've already
> come to rely on its uncanny ability to help me transform my ideas into
> actual working code. Also AWS is simply too awesome to pass up for a
> web-monkey like me.

Well, privately I keep my old Ada 95 projects in Ada 95. New projects which
anyway are dependent on GNAT, e.g. ones using GtkAda, are Ada 2005.

All running projects at work are all Ada 2005 and we will definitely switch
to Ada 2012 as soon as possible.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de