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=-0.5 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,2702c1ed8be62863,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: to.reply@read.my.sig (Rick Thorne) Subject: RE: What ada 83 compiler is *best* Date: 1998/12/03 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 418292781 Organization: Some, but limited Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-12-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Roga Danar wrote: > What? If I am not mistaken DEC has distance itself from VAX. > Ada is continues to > be supported by many people throughout the world. Sure. If you want to spend your career programming in Sweden, have a nut, buddy. I'd rather stay here in Silicon Valley where the planet comes to the feeding frenzy. > If you have any statistics on the "rotting" of Ada I would love to see them. *contemptuous chuckle* Why don't you read your Sunday paper, friend? Check out the want ads. MY "statistical" survery tells me this: for every Ada job opening there are literally - LITERALLY - dozens for Java and C++. What statistical sampling do I need other than this? Yup, Ada IS a great language. I agree. The Edsel was a great car, too. How many people do you seeing driving them, let alone BUYING them? Look, too, at the Usenet news groups. Compare the traffic on comp.lang.ada to comp.lang.c++.* and comp.lang.java.*. The Ada newgroup is orders of magnitude smaller. Look at the journals. When's the last time Ada was of the cover of IEEE Software? Walk into Computer Literacy or any other book store carrying geek literature. What's the ratio of C++/Java books to Ada? It's easily orders of magnitude in difference. I realize a few people are riding the Ada legacy and making money. You're welcome to it. There are people pimping and selling crack to 12 year olds too. I don't want THAT money either, thank you. I'll continue making money elsewhere - and in technologies that have a future in both fun AND promising projects. > Since Ada is a great language and as many advantages and few drawbacks > compared > with the more popular languages like C/C++, Java, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol > etc... It > is only a matter of time and marketing that Ada is placed, rightfully, as the > language for the next millennium, IMHO. *gaffaw, snort, laugh out loud, wheeze* Pardon me, sir. I need to catch my breath. The only thing more pathetically funny to me than bad logic is bad prognostication. Thanx for making my day on BOTH counts. What utter nonsense. Your presumption that Ada has a great future because it's a great language is laughable. Why do I say this? Look at APL, PL1, and Simula. All are great languages - and as dead as Ada WILL BE in the next 20 years. If Ada has any future at all it's only because of its legacy. I do realize that Ada has SOME popularity in Europe, but it's use in the US is driven almost purely by the DoD Ada Initiative. The Ada Initiative has been (correctly) identified as a mistake, and Ada is now in its death throws in the US. Like it or not, sir, the US drives the world markets, and Ada's un-popularity in American commercial markets AND its un-popularity among US software developers means its days are numbered. Believe me. I'm a former Ada man myself, and I see it dying rapidly even in DoD circles. I'm currently submitting a proposal to NASA in behalf of a local company and the government managers know all too well that NO ONE wants Ada any more. They don't even ask about it! Time and marketing?!?! I have two words for this: puh-lease. How are time and marketing going to help Ada? Take a look at the language technologies that have absolutely left Ada in the dust: Java, C++, Perl, Python, etc. Why? Simple: TIME AND MARKETING. Java and C++ already have the markets that Ada missed, and those markets are too happy with Java and C++ to open their doors to an experiment that's already failed. You're welcome to continue fooling yourself all you like, sir, but Java and C++ already own the US development scene, and Ada isn't going to crack the nut. NO WAY! Name me a large commercial US software developer who's changing to Ada! Name 20! Even if you can, for every one you can name I can name 20 that laugh at the notion of Ada overrunning the US software development world. I work in that world; believe me, I know. I abandoned Ada years ago and I haven't been out of work a DAY because of it, nor will I be out of work for the forseeable future. I work in Silicon Valley as a software consultant and I promise you, sir, Ada isn't on the horizon of anyone - ANYONE - I regard as a client, and for all the right reasons. I agree - Ada's a great language. So what? GREATNESS hasn't stopped other ideas from self-destructing. Look at BetaMax, Dvorak keyboards, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, and the literally thousands of computer languages that have come and gone in our world. In a way, I admire your strange devotion and naive hopefullness, but I'm on my way to retiring young and I can tell that I don't have Ada to thank for it! > -- Michael Smith > Persident, AlphaSoft, Inc. ^^^^^^ Well, Mr. "Persident", I think you could add a spell checker to your obviously long list of needed technical upgrades... -- ? Rick Thorne ? "I'm quite illiterate, ? ? software engineer by day ? but I read a lot" ? ? harried father of two by night ? J. D. Salinger ? ? rick.thorne@lmco.com ? ? ? http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/6816/ ?