AdaWorld and AdaPower

[David Botton <david@botton.com>]

(Stephane, not sure if this is the best place to discuss this, so I am 
comfortable on the admin-list @ AdaPower.com or in private e-mails if  
you prefer).

Some time back we got in to some discussion, but never really focused 
on the different needs and roles our sites could serve to the community.

AdaPower has always had its main focus as being a practical "tool" for 
Ada the language (it started as the Ada Source Code Treasury off my 
home page and grew in to AdaPower), but not really on the Ada community 
(sure it does a bit of that, but has never been "the" site for that). I 
don't foresee that changing and in fact with the new design and some 
future plans, I see it becoming even more focused on code, tutorials, 
articles, etc.

In fact if I was going to do another site, I would add an Ada community 
center, I would create something say called AdaWorld :-)

AdaWorld has already made strong head way in this regard. I would think 
that we put our heads together on AdaWorld, much as you have done so 
for AdaPower in the past and now, and push forward head strong in to it 
(I am ready to put my money behind my mouth here so to speak an be part 
of making this happen if you would like also) and make it both the 
compliment and to some degree the umbrella in relationship to AdaPower 
and other like sites.

Here is how I think AdaWorld can and should become the Ada Community 
Site (perhaps you or others see more):

* Current events that relate to the Ada community

- Conferences / Call to papers

A fantastic list is currently kept up to date by Dirk Craeynest at  
http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~dirk/ada-belgium/events/index.html That 
list could be mirrored at AdaWorld and reach more people.

- Product Announcements

Perhaps a form that would output press releases and announcements for 
Ada product releases, releases of new versions of code packages for 
reuse, etc. It could automatically send out a message to CLA, a list 
that people could join off of AdaWorld, and perhaps Team-Ada. I realize 
that there is a list at Ada IC, but very sadly it is focused on 
supporting ARA vendors and not the Ada community as a whole (although 
certainly this does so on many levels, but not in the capacity at 
hand). An AdaWorld open alternative for Ada PR stories / announcements 
would be a welcome addition to the Ada World :-)

- Ada course announcements

There are courses being given on Ada even for free in various places.

For example, I am considering doing a series of live web cast tutorials 
on Ada. Getting some others to do the same. A good community center 
would be key to making this type of work a success.

* Ada Advocacy (in general and for the common man)

A center for collecting together much as AdaPower does for code and 
packages, of advocacy information. There is tons of it spread thin all 
over the net. While there are some Ada advocacy sites, they are fairly 
centered on certain themes. Some oriented around dependability, others 
coding readability, etc. etc. They also target varied markets. One 
market not being focused on and should be a big part of this is the 
common man, the application developer and the IT dude. The Big Linux 
book goes a long way to reach out to the common man, but a solid 
resource for Ada advocacy to non-critical engineering types is _very 
badly_ needed!

* Community Guide (as a guided tour)

A step by step guide in a "tour" book format to getting started in the 
Ada community.
Where to go for code for reuse.
Where to talk about Ada and get help.
The history of Ada
Where Ada is going and where it has been
Key things to try out in Ada that will make you want to stick with the language
and much more

* Cool Factor Factory

Ada needs to be cool. The very thing that has "killed" Ada can be what 
makes it the biggest "turn on". When I find a good geeky high schooler 
/ CS1er around that I want to convert to Ada, I tell him using Ada via 
GNATCOM you can program missiles to fire from a word document (and that 
is a fact!). I tell him stuff like:

Ada - Military Grade Programming!
If you can get it to compile man, you just about know its goin' to 
work. Check this out (examples shown)

I am not going to sell the M$ generation on reality, damn M$ alread 
made us believe bugs are features too :-) Vote for, Bug rights now!

If I could see straight (its getting late), I'd write more, but I think 
the picture is clear as to the need for an Ada community site. AdaWorld 
has already started to dance in that space, the other sites that exist 
are too focused and/or not maintained. I think and would want to be 
part of an AdaWorld taking the lead in this space.

My 2 dollars and 43 cents :-)

David Botton
http://www.adapower.com