g_harrison@vger.nsu.edu (12/21/90)
In article <1990Dec20.015945.24282@ico.isc.com>, rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes: > emery@linus.mitre.org (David Emery) writes: >> >From: bwb@sei.cmu.edu (Bruce Benson) >> >I sat in a meeting where an individual (working in one of the military >> >service DoD secretariets) insisted that any university that got >> >federal money (ROTC, research grants, etc.) should be told to teach >> >Ada or have their money taken away. >> >> Actually, I think there's something to be said for this idea... > NO! This sets academic freedom back 200 years! :-) anyway... > I think that it's high time Ada was cut > loose from its life-support system of government-mandated ramming-down- > our-throats and allowed to live or die. I'm serious. If Ada can't sur- > vive on its own, it's not viable. (For the record, although I'm not much > of an Ada fan, I do think Ada *can* survive. It won't be the top > language, but it has its place(s).) > > In fact, I think that some of the mandated use of Ada has damaged its > growth. People look at it and say "oh, that's only for government work, > and it's all tied up in bureaucracy...we don't want it." > I am NOT sure Ada could survive on its own to satisfy the language-proliferation [once] problems experienced by DoD; I also believe that the attitude toward it would kill it almost immediately. The press has been full of negative comments. [I DO hope that I am wrong!] I have been actively programming in it for six years, but it does have some real faults (which I will not get into here.). Languages like Pascal and C have them too, but there are also many pre-conceived notions about the language that would kill it immediately: "Too Big," "Too hard to learn." "Government-only languge," "Seriously flawed," "Too expensive," "Too slow," etc. etc. The non-DoD Ada efforts in this country and especially in Europe are very interesting, and I would like to hear some of the stories (successes and failures) about working with Ada in a non-educational and non-mandated environment. > -- > Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd Boulder, CO (303)449-2870 > ...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job." ------------------------------------------------------*------o Happy--- -- George C. Harrison ------------------------------ * * ----o_o___ New--- ----- Professor of Computer Science -------------- * * * ----\ o /-Year-- ----- Norfolk State University, ----------------- *Merry* ----\ /-------- -------- Norfolk, Virginia 23504 --------------- * * * * * ----|--------- ----- INTERNET: g_harrison@vger.nsu.edu ------ *Christmas* --_|_-------- ----------These are MY views.... you may share them..*** -----------------