[comp.lang.misc] Definition...

billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 ) (03/24/90)

From emuleomo@paul.rutgers.edu (Emuleomo):
> Remember that Ada, despite DOD funding, is languishing! I daresay that 
> even Forth, an entirely user driven language, is more popular. 

   Ada is NOT languishing, unless you consider languishing to mean
   a $1.25-billion-dollar industry in the US alone (old data, the
   current figure is probably much higher), unless you consider
   "languishing" to include a language long committed to by the 
   largest corporation in the world (Nippon Telephone & Telegraph),  
   unless you consider General Electric, Reuters, and other major
   US commercial Ada users to be barely significant... would you mind 
   explaining what exactly it is that you consider "languishing"?

   Ada's biggest difficulty has been the length of time it has taken
   to get high-quality optimizing compilers, textbooks good enough for
   college users, $50 student compilers, and so on.  All of these are
   now in place, and you can now safely expect some very strong results.  


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu