Re: Proving Correctness (was Java Portability)

["nicolas" <n.brunot@cadwin.com>]

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"Marin David Condic" <marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com> a �crit dans
le message news: 9k6aug$mtq$1@nh.pace.co.uk...
> I understood what you were getting at: Having or not having tools doesn't
> have anything to do with safety issues, but it does have to do with
helping
> to make the language more popular.
>

And not only more popular ... It would be also extremely profitable for
current Ada users.
How many Ada programmers are looking around for easy interface with whatever
you can easily find in popular languages IDEs
sometimes you find several of them, good ones, bad ones (which one to choose
?)
sometimes it simply not exists, good luck for endless and tedious pragma
interface (most common situation when you buy a commercial C library)

This is a complete loss of time and a boring job, going against any basic
reason why Ada users made the Ada choice.
Where are the library components, reuse etc ... ?

Some Ada fans seems to deny that, without having written a single big enough
Windows application, meeting interface requirements of a normal PC user.
They should really have a look of what is available elsewhere
They should really try to start from scratch a simple graphical Windows
application
really with nothing more that what comes with their compiler, not using
other tools they spent monthes to find or write themselves.
I bet any Java debutant can provide a working application before they have
made the choice of their GUI ...

We don't have this kind of problem because we have had our own tools for a
lot of years, but I fully understand reluctance of people starting today
with Ada, and realizing what they miss compare to popular languages.
Most applications cannot afford such a loss of time, even if it improves
safety. Most softwares are not embedded critical ones.

The first thing to do, is starting to aknowledge that people using popular
languages are not completely stupid, that their concerns are valid ones, and
that there is absolutely no valid reason to miss basic standard tools.
After all they release a lot of excellent products, and if there is a lot of
junk software, may be it's also because they release hundreds of products
while Ada programmers release just one.