Re: Feasibility of using Ada in new development

[Pascal Obry <pascal@obry.org>]

wojtek@power.com.pl (Wojtek Narczynski) writes:

> Unfortunately, the world is a bit more complex, with billions lines of
> existing code, customers that don't share Ada enthusiasm, not to
> mention library code voids.

Bindings ?

> But let me give you a few examples:
> - For linux kernel development I'd use C, because otherwise I'd have
> zero chances to commit my work.

I agree about this one.

> - For a web e-commerce site I'd use WebObjects (now Java, but I
> prefered it in Obj-C), because it will be the quickest to develop.

I'll use AWS, quite simpler and way quickest to develop with it.

> - Even the most Ada-centric company in the world uses tons of legacy C
> code, and I don't think they will rewrite it in Ada any soon. Of
> course, that code is causing them a lot of problems, but would you
> call their business decision to stay with it, wrong?

Rewrite certainly not, that will be stupid, but building binding when needed
is certainly a safe path in the long run.

> - (vicious) There's also a company that is pursuing a subset of Ada,
> with annotations. Are they wrong, should they switch to full Ada and
> drop their annotations?
> - (vicious) Would you use Ada instead of VDM or Z?

As you said: vicious :)

> Final example, I am sincerely interested in the resolution, you may
> perceive it as a challenge for an Ada zealot:
> - http://state-threads.sourceforge.net/ how would you do this in Ada
> (thread = task)? http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/681845.html describes why
> I would want this.
> 
> I really don't know wether to start a six months and up, high risk,
> project to modify the GNAT runtime, or just use this library in C.

Why modify the GNAT runtime. This is a library right ? Ada with tasks,
protected object is certainly in a good position to propose something.
Maybe starting with AWS is a good idea...

Pascal.

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