Re: How to get Ada to ?cross the chasm??

[Warren <ve3wwg@gmail.com>]

On Sunday, 29 April 2018 06:51:00 UTC-4, pat...@spellingbeewinnars.org  wrote:
> This is exactly what the OP was concerned about, how to get Ada out of one demographic into another. 
> 
> Again are all the other languages for inferior programmers?
> 
> Using a subset does not mean the language is dumbed down. 

Yes, subsets are a great way to start out. I remember looking at SL/I (Student Language One) on the IBM-1130 way back when, which was a PL/I subset. The PL/I language would have been too large to start out with. At that time, all of those features would have been too much for that 8K core machine anyway, heh heh.

I think this discussion needs to divide into two main categories:

 - embedded programming (which I see no Ada problem for)
 - POSIX day-to-day programming

The biggest impediment to Ada in the POSIX world IMO is the fact that it is basically a "C World". Yes, you can call C/C++ functions from Ada and even design struct mappings etc.

But the biggest PITA for Ada programming in a C environment is the durn C macros!  You end up having write programs to digest the macros you need and put them into Ada terms. Then if you move to another POSIX platform, you may need to tweak this again (errno.h for example).

> "2. Find an effective way to distinguish S/W engs from coders and prohibit coders from developing S/W. "
> 
> This is mind-bogglingly arrogant. 

I have to agree. The distinction may have its place when hiring for a position but even then, degrees and Phd don't guarantee.

Another part of the problem is the chicken and egg problem:

I'd love to do my work in Ada where I work, but it would be unfair of me to introduce it here. They can barely hire C++ programmers where I live, let alone find someone that is proficient in Ada.  If I left behind a legacy of Ada code here, they'd never let me retire!

Warren