Re: Ada 9X features

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <940908231244_73672.2025_DHR48-1@compuserve.com>,
Ken Garlington  <73672.2025@COMPUSERVE.COM> wrote:

>I can't say that I will use everything in Ada 9X. I can't defend everything
>that's been added. But I hope that those features that were added based on
>inputs from the "grunts" in the field are treated with the same importance as
>those proposed by the vendors, even if they aren't quite as interesting...

This discussion of "creeping featurism" in Ada 9X points up just how 
difficult a consensus process is. Everyone says "this language is getting
too big; we don't need all this junk; leave _my_ favorite stuff in,
please."

To judge from some of the published reports from vendors, some are
implementing the realtime changes first, others the OO stuff first.
These two areas are more or less separable, advocated by different
constituencies with different needs. It is inevitable that priorities
will vary; the vendors say they are "following their customers' wishes."

To the extent that a vendor says "put in what _my_ customers need,
take out what _your_ customers need", this is a natural consequence
of the fragmentation of the market and of a consensus-reaching process.

GNAT is, so far, the only implementation getting close to doing it all.

Mike Feldman
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Michael B. Feldman -  chair, SIGAda Education Working Group
Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University -  Washington, DC 20052 USA
202-994-5253 (voice) - 202-994-0227 (fax) - mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)
"Pork is all that stuff the government gives the other guys."
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