Re: The future of Ada is at risk

The GNU GNAT Compiler is the only Open Source compiler, and
it lacks proper support and implementation on a variety of platforms.
I can confirm this. E.g. it is a major headache to get the GNAT compiler
working under Mac OS X. AdaCore stopped distributing GNAT/GPS (GPL) for
the Mac. There has never been a GNAT/GPS package for Solaris AFAIK.
etc.etc.

Ada and the Open Source community:- there are several problems.

1) Perception. Ada is still perceived as "the Pentagon language", and is
associated in many people's minds with "evil". This perception is very
difficult to change.
2) Complexity. Ada has been designed for large, complex, reliable
software systems. Most open source projects are smaller and it is not
worth the effort to use Ada: or would you use a tractor in your garden
behind your house?
3) The quick-and-dirty mentality. This is very widespread in the current
IT world. Deadline pressure leads to q&d coding, hence the popularity of
dynamic script languages that promise rapid results. Goes completely
against the Ada philosophy.
4) Ada limitations. Certain aspects of Ada are painfully clumsy. The
three string libs, unnecessary multitude of I/O libs, primitive
exception handling, constructors are not part of the language,
finalization is an afterthought,....
5) Lack of libraries and frameworks. This is due to the unpopularity of
the language. Ada needs at least a relational DB binding *that works*
with the current open-source RDBMS-es (as opposed to Gnade), she needs a
good scientific library, she needs simple but powerful string handling,
just to name a few. The catch-22 is that nobody will develop these until
there's strong demand for Ada-based s/w, and there won't be strong
demand until the libs are available.

cheers,A

--
"Non est volentis, neque currentis, sed miserentis Dei"
.

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