Re: How to Make Ada more widely used?

[world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian)]

>I would like to start a discussion on what it would take to make
>Ada a more "widely used" language than it is today.
>QUESTION:
>What would it take to make Ada a more "widely used" language than
>it is now?

   Simple.  Drop the Ada Mandate.  It is an artificial distortion of the
marketplace that has sheltered Ada from competition with other languages.
Compiler prices are uncompetitive with those of other languages, no one
is producing the Ada add-on libraries so useful for development in other
worlds because there is no market.  Not only is the Ada Mandate bad
economics, but it is also bad policy, as evidence by the ongoing defections
from following by many inside the armed forces.  In short, because of Ada
policies and not because of the language itself, Ada is uncompetitive and
not attractive enough to be more widely used.

    Second, market and evangelize the language.  Outside the Mandated
world, few know much about Ada.  Why?  Because they rarely see Ada vendors
and Ada contractors (like the entire STARS program) ever marketing Ada
at trade shows and conferences.  How can people be expected to make any
decisions about a language they never receive information about?  But
the DoD doesn't care, the Ada contractors don't care and the Ada compiler
vendors barely care, and what does appear is made confusing by an equal
amount of C++ marketing from these same people.

    As a business process, the fostering of Ada has been a disaster from
day one.  And the same people are still in charge of stuff.  Until these
people are replaced by people who understand free markets, and these 
policies are changed, Ada use will remain stagnant.

    And to beat a dead horse, Ada will remain a dead, niche language as
long as IBM refuses to give it as much attention as it does C++ and Smalltalk.

Greg Aharonian

-- 
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 Greg Aharonian
 Source Translation & Optimization
 P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178