Ada noob here! Is Ada widely used?
in [ADA]
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From: Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57) on 20 May 2010 11:33 Le Thu, 20 May 2010 14:53:35 +0200, Duke Normandin <dukeofperl(a)ml1.net> a écrit: > I'm new to Ada, but not to programming in general. Decided to learn a new > language, and Ada was of interest to me. Am enjoying the language so far > - > using GNAT GPL nad Coronado's old tutorial. > > Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used, and in what area(s) > does > it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching, graphics, etc? TIA.. Hi, welcome so, One of the most meaningful list I know to get an answer to âwho is using Adaâ: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada-project-summary.html I do not know a list for smaller projects or applications. Here is also a quick historical introduction: http://www.sigada.org/ada_95/what_is_ada.html -- There is even better than a pragma Assert: a SPARK --# check.
From: Jeffrey R. Carter on 20 May 2010 13:21 Duke Normandin wrote: > > Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used, and in what area(s) does > it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching, graphics, etc? TIA.. Ada tends to be the language of choice for software engineers (~2% of all developers). It excels whenever correctness is important. To my mind, that is all software. -- Jeff Carter "C++ is like jamming a helicopter inside a Miata and expecting some sort of improvement." Drew Olbrich 51
From: Gautier write-only on 20 May 2010 14:49 On May 20, 2:53 pm, Duke Normandin wrote: > Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used, AFAIK it has never been widely used (so you can forget the "still"). As a language designed from scratch, it came too late to challenge established languages (among them, C). The first version was perhaps too rich to be competitive in the nascent microcomputing world - so it that sense, it was too early. But wait, we are still in 2010. Perhaps people in 2050 will ask themselves why the heck these fragile "#include", '}' and pointers-everywhere-paradigm were still in use in 2010... > and in what area(s) does it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching, graphics, etc? It is excellent in these areas, and probably in many others... _________________________________________________________ Gautier's Ada programming -- http://sf.net/users/gdemont/
From: Duke Normandin on 20 May 2010 14:58 On 2010-05-20, Yannick Duch�ne <yannick_duchene(a)yahoo.fr> wrote: > Le Thu, 20 May 2010 15:59:03 +0200, Alex Mentis <asmentis(a)gmail.com> a > �crit: >> A frequently-cited weakness in the academic area is that there are not >> a lot >> of people developing packages for Ada that students can use to achieve >> a >> high level of functionality for a low cost (in time) of learning. >> Students > I remember Jean-Pierre Rosen, telling how some people think there is not > library available in Ada for this and that. He explained most of of times, > people was surprised when he gave them a link to the material they were > seeking for. > > Here is a list of bindings which may be of interest (I'm not using this > material myself, so cannot tell more): > http://archive.adaic.com/docs/flyers/free-bindings.html > That URL is not much good - all the links are dead! Perhaps Ada should have a _real_ home, where it is guaranteed that noob students, and noob old farts like me will indeed find the resources needed to make Ada shine! ;) -- Duke *** Tolerance becomes a crime, when applied to evil [Thomas Mann] ***
From: Duke Normandin on 20 May 2010 15:06
On 2010-05-20, Alex Mentis <asmentis(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On May 20, 8:53�am, Duke Normandin <dukeofp...(a)ml1.net> wrote: >> I'm new to Ada, but not to programming in general. Decided to learn a new >> language, and Ada was of interest to me. Am enjoying the language so far - >> using GNAT GPL nad Coronado's old tutorial. >> >> Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used, and in what area(s) does >> it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching, graphics, etc? TIA.. >> -- >> Duke >> *** Tolerance becomes a crime, when applied to evil [Thomas Mann] *** > > There are others who will be more qualified to answer this than me, but > annecdotally it sounds to me like Ada has a wider base in Europe right now > than in the US. > > The language is good for embedded, real-time, and safety-critical software > where high reliability is required. It is often used in the space and > aviation industries for these reasons. > > Some like Ada as a teaching language. A lot of its syntax is Pascal- > like. A frequently-cited weakness in the academic area is that there are > not a lot of people developing packages for Ada that students can use to > achieve a high level of functionality for a low cost (in time) of > learning. Students tend to be able to do much more advanced (graphics, > networking, etc.) projects more quickly with languages that have more > libraries and community support than Ada currently offers. > > Alex That is indeed sad, given that Ada is such a mature language. These types of resources should have been freely available at Ada's home a long time ago. However, I suspect that the commercialization of Ada has, in the past, been responsible for impeding its proliferation. Same trauma suffered by many other great languages, some of whom are bordering on extinction. There still may be time for Ada? -- Duke *** Tolerance becomes a crime, when applied to evil [Thomas Mann] *** |