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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,be23df8e7e275d73 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-08-08 14:40:52 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!skates!not-for-mail From: Stephen Leake Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: More Uniform Ada libraries (was: Proving Correctness) Date: 08 Aug 2001 17:36:01 -0400 Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Message-ID: References: <9kea9a$lsc$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9keduf$qvc$1@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> <9kelv1$riq$1@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> <9krkfa$g12$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: anarres.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: skates.gsfc.nasa.gov 997306557 23419 128.183.220.71 (8 Aug 2001 21:35:57 GMT) X-Complaints-To: dscoggin@cne-odin.gsfc.nasa.gov NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 Aug 2001 21:35:57 GMT User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:11643 Date: 2001-08-08T21:35:57+00:00 List-Id: "nicolas" writes: > Shortly said : > - We need Ada compilers suitable for us Which you appear to have today. You have given no reason to suggest that might change in the future. > - We will have them only if the number of Ada users with our > concerns is high enough. Apparently it is today; why will it change for the worse? The trend is toward more Ada use, not less. > - I don't think this number will be high enough with the current > situation concerning portable and standard Ada libraries. > > We are used to develop our own Ada > libraries At the very beginning we worked on graphical applications > for DOS platform and almost no Ada library was available for our > needs. Now, when we need external libraries, we usually buy C > commercial libraries and import them in Ada. The reason is that the > libraries we need simply don't exist in Ada, while excellent ones > are available in C. Great! I'll assume they will continue to be avialable, independent of the Ada market. > As far as we are concerned, we don't really need the kind of Ada > standard libraries we are talking about. Then why are we talking about them!? > Because we know how to develop them, or import them from other > languages. But this has a cost, and anyway we are still dependant of > the availability of Ada compilers suitable for what we do. > > The question is to know if compilers suitable for us will be available in > the future. > Nowadays, I don't believe that software companies will use Ada to develop > the kind of software we develop, if Ada standard libraries are not > available. > Newcomers to Ada won't accept what we accept, because having no Ada > background, it will be easier and cheaper for them to develop in C, C++ or > Java, than to be tied to either ACT or Aonix or Rational, or spend their > time writing endless pragmas import. Being able to take advantage of all the software engineering features of Ada is _well worth_ writing pragmas! That is the point! I guess you feel "Newcomers to Ada" won't agree with that assesment. > More than that, when you want to use subcontractors, you'd much > better be looking for subcontrators with C, C++ or Java knowledge, > than Ada knowledge. Ok, (assuming there are fewer Ada contractors available) but that is a totally separate argument from "we need standard Ada libraries". > If in the end, we are too few companies with the kind of > requirements we have, no Ada compiler will be suitable for us. > That's our main concern. I don't see how you reach this conclusion from the above statements; you've said nothing about why the Ada compilers you actually use, or the features they provide, might disappear. I also don't see how this relates to "standard Ada libraries". You are _not_ using Ada libraries; you are using the _standard_ mechanisms in Ada to import available C libraries. Sounds like a good situation to me! -- -- Stephe