Re: Is Ada likely to survive ?

[rav@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au (robin)]

	safetran <safetran@kaiwan.com> writes:

	>I am looking for opinions on whether you think the Ada language is going
	>to be around in the next 5 years ?  How about 10 years ? 

	>I appreciate that with the over 50 million lines of US DOD Ada code that
	>exist and the numerous other Ada projects around the world,  Ada will be
	>around for quite a while (to maintain all this code).   However, I am
	>looking at it more from the point of view of new projects. 

	>I work for a **commercial** company in the US and we use Ada for
	>embedded, real time applications.  I am now about to start a couple of
	>new projects and need to decide whether I should continue the use of Ada
	>or move to C/C++/Java.  Things that worry me are: 

	>(1) Will the compiler vendors be around in the long run.  

	>(2)Its already difficult to find Ada programmers and many programmers do
	>not want to work in Ada as it has lower market value. 

	>(3)My products have a life expectancy of over 10 years and so I need to
	>find people to maintain the code in the long run. 

	>Note:  I have been using Ada for over 7 years and so am quite aware of
	>its benefits and don't need to be convinced [I also program in C/C++ :)] 
	>--
	>Rakesh 
	>Rakesh.Malhotra@Safetran.com

If you're worried about the long-term availability, and want the
benefits of Ada, why not consider PL/I?

   It provides the capability of Ada, particularly for real-time.

   IBM has recently brought out PL/I for Windows 95 and Windows NT,
and shortly before that, for AIX and OS/2.  AFAIK, it is also
working on porting a version of that compiler for the mainframe.

   That company has had PL/I on its mainframes for the past
30 years or so.