Re: Array mappings

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

In article <D0zC5A.H0r@cwi.nl>, Dik T. Winter <dik@cwi.nl> wrote:

>I do not think the feature has been used so very much.  The only
>time when it is really useful is when you want to interface to the large
>base of numerical libraries in Fortran.  

You seem to be saying that interfacing "to the large base of numerical
libraries in Fortran" is not important. This seems a bit strange, given
that re-using code like this is supposed to be what reuse is about.
So what if it's written in Fortran? If it's easy to interface new
code to it, that new code might as well be written in Ada.

>But as Robert says, C has the
>same problem (more actually).

Quite true. So how are the newly-converted C programmers doing this?
(Could it be that they are being provided with C versions of at least
some of that Fortran stuff? Could it be that the C suppliers are really
going out to target Fortranners?) 

I think we are back in the same chicken-and-egg problem. Ada is a small 
market because Ada is a small market, which guarantees that Ada will
always be a small market.

Mike Feldman