[comp.sys.amiga] ADA on Amiga

cpmurphy@vax1.tcd.ie (09/12/90)

In article <1990Sep9.173108.16455@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:
> davidm@sugar.hackercorp.com (David Martin) writes:
>>ALL:
>>  A friend tells me that ADA is being released for the
>>Commodore Amiga by Oxxi. Has anyone heard the details
>>about it yet? Or about their new program editor? M2
>>compiler also?
> 
> I bought my Modula-2 compiler through OXXI - stay away from them.
> 
> Ada for the Amiga sounds like a dream come true, but it OXXI is
> involved, nightmare is more likely to be the result.

 Ada for the Amiga sounds like a nightmare come true. It's a big ugly language.
The compiler we used here eats up disk-space and is s.l.o.w.  With a language
like that it's not surprising. I can't see how it will be much better on an
Amiga.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christian Murphy, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland	cpmurphy@vax1.tcd.ie
cpmurphy%vax1.tcd.ie@cunyvm.cuny.edu

schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) (09/12/90)

In article <6848.26ed24a4@vax1.tcd.ie> cpmurphy@vax1.tcd.ie writes:
>In article <1990Sep9.173108.16455@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:

[some discussion deleted]

>> Ada for the Amiga sounds like a dream come true, but it OXXI is
>> involved, nightmare is more likely to be the result.
>
> Ada for the Amiga sounds like a nightmare come true. It's a big ugly language.
>The compiler we used here eats up disk-space and is s.l.o.w.  With a language
>like that it's not surprising. I can't see how it will be much better on an
>Amiga.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Christian Murphy, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland	cpmurphy@vax1.tcd.ie

Actually, IMHO, Ada is a big, very nicely blocked structured language, whose
performance can be a function of what compiler is being used.  Let's avoid the
language religious wars if we can.  Whether or not one or more individuals
do not have a use for a particular language does not detract from the 
possibility that other individuals _do_ have a need for that language.  I
believe that there is a market for Ada on the Amiga.  One recent estimate 
placed the the US Ada hardware and software market in the $1 billion (yes,
billion with a 'b') range in sales for 1989 (reference Government Computer
News, August 20, 1990).  Apparently, Ada was also becoming a major factor in
banking and finance systems in Europe, also.  It might be nice if the Amiga
could get involved in even a small portion of this market.

Jeff Schweiger


-- 
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xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) (09/12/90)

cpmurphy@vax1.tcd.ie writes:
>xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:
>> davidm@sugar.hackercorp.com (David Martin) writes:

>>>ALL:
>>>  A friend tells me that ADA is being released for the
>>>Commodore Amiga by Oxxi. Has anyone heard the details
>>>about it yet? Or about their new program editor? M2
>>>compiler also?

>> I bought my Modula-2 compiler through OXXI - stay away from them.
 
>> Ada for the Amiga sounds like a dream come true, but it OXXI is
>> involved, nightmare is more likely to be the result.

>Ada for the Amiga sounds like a nightmare come true. It's a big
>ugly language. The compiler we used here eats up disk-space and is
>s.l.o.w. With a language like that it's not surprising. I can't
>see how it will be much better on an Amiga.

Well, Ada is a big, ugly, robust, highly maintainable, highly
portable language, whose writers earn good pay and have good job
security, at least in theory. So if you _had_ to develop code in
it, say as a contractor working mostly on your own equipment for
an organization where Ada was a requirement, wouldn't the Amiga be
high on your list of platforms for the work? Especially since you
could start the long slow compile in the background while doing
something important in the foreground, like filling in the next
module stub with real code, or playing NetHack?

To the person in _that_ situation, the Amiga would become a true
productivity tool for Ada. Heck, you could even write the docs for
AmgiaTeX processing while you compiled the code, and preview your
dvi output. Compared to some of the other environments available
_for_ _developing_ _Ada_ _code_, I think "dream come true" is
still a fair call.

I'm not especially claiming that Ada would be the Amiga
programming language of choice, that's another religious war
entirely. (I was vastly amused to see in the C++ standards group
recently:

  "C (which some people claim incorrectly to be a programming language)...",

however. ;-)

Kent, the man from xanth.
<xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>