Re: Ada Popularity: Comparison of Ada/Charles with C++ STL (and Perl)

[kevin.cline@gmail.com (Kevin Cline)]

Chris Humphries <chris@unixfu.net> wrote in message news:<415813FE.9090803@unixfu.net>...
> Kevin Cline wrote:
> > 
> > Again, the original question was "Why isn't Ada more popular?"  
> > 
> > The answer I am giving is that most programmers don't have such an
> > overriding concern for safety that they are willing to write twice as
> > much code to get the additional safety.
> > 
> 
> (whoa, what a thread this has become!)
> 
> Thanks, and good answer. Since then asking that question, I have
> learned a lot more about Ada. John Barnes' book, "Programming in
> Ada 96, 2nd Edition" helped tremendously. A very good book. It is
> now nice to understand just what Ada _is_, and not just another
> programming language, but more an attempting at progressing software
> engineering.
> 
> I also think I understand why Ada is not more popular. Though I
> am very thankful for open source, and feel very strongly about about
> it, something bad has grown out of it: bad programmers and programs.

Bad programmers didn't come from open source.  There have always been
bad programmers, and there always will be.  Just as it is with music
and writing and film and art, 90% of all programming sucks.

> Most open source projects seem to have no formal software development
> process...
> Many young/inexperienced programmers do not even see why this is
> important, as their code works, and generally they are done with it
> then and there. 

This is also true for a surprising number of old and experienced
programmers.

> In the real world, and in my job, most of the time
> is spend updating code. Good times are when I get to design something
> new, most the time is spent doing grunt work.

This situation is common, but not inevitable.  On a good project,
design is a continuous process.  Unfortunately, most programs reach
the point where any change is so risky that developers spend all their
time trying to figure out how to squeeze in a new feature without
breaking the existing features.