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-Thread: 103376,d8a2ac5ffb7cadfd X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2004 22:22:08 -0600 From: David Botton Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 23:22:08 -0500 Message-ID: <2004110323220875249%david@bottoncom> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: AdaWorld and AdaPower User-Agent: Unison/1.5.2 NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.176.74.83 X-Trace: sv3-320bTJRef1F8TeY+QQ7rwx+2M3zRgwbmdmMkiJMYqfbDTZ0EJfiQ/kdC/8Wabu7JihZks2JjIvlQgEE!RTD9XYr8ObvbfbW15/pW0hwBntLxV51p+mm9sS3Rp3mxt5eFgTMRZUpqrbLGBw== X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.20 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:5984 Date: 2004-11-03T23:22:08-05:00 List-Id: (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