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"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
X-To:
Tom Moran <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 15 Apr 2000 21:27:21 -0700
Reply-To:
"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
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From:
"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Bob Leif
To: Tom Moran et al.

After having suffered through innumerable traumas with today's commercial
software, I can assure you that the customers would purchase reliable
software. Unfortunately, no one has attempted to sell reliable software.
Software engineers can be motivated to create it in Ada because Ada has two
great advantages. 1) Separate specifications that are compiled facilitate
distributed development. Monster software factories like Microsoft can be
replaced by virtual corporations (no commute to work). And 2) With ASIS, we
can have both the benefits of open source and a royalty driven
 entrepreneurial) marketplace.

As for Windows, it will soon collapse of its own weight. I still see Windows
98 prominently displayed in the stores. It should have been supplanted by
Windows 98. Anyone have any relative sales figures?

It is now time to for Ada to switch to the next software epoch, XML. Tom,
you are the one, who actually demonstrated that this can be done. XML
employs a formal actual notation. I admit putting the actuals in quotes is
strange to me. XML also has the equivalent of range checking and begins and
ends.

For those interested, please see, St. Laurent and Biggar, "Inside XML DTDs
McGraw Hill, part of ISBN 0-07-134621-X.

-----Original Message-----
From: Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Tom Moran
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2000 12:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: What the competition looks like (resurrected)


>failure of standardization at software level, the standardization happened
>at hardware level - the PC.
>
>The exact same process is happening again. There is a need for
>cross-platforms applications, and since languages are still unable to be
>really portable, we see the standardization happening a (virtual) hardware
>level: the JVM.

  Cross-platform applications are a tiny niche indeed.  Wintel is
nearly the whole game, economically speaking.  I understand even
Stephen King's internet story came out only on Windows.  If
standardization was a problem, languages could handle it - but
OS/API libraries are the locus of the big differences.  Java is
useful for downloaded programs because programs in any other
language are too big and too likely to harbor destructive viruses.

  BTW, if you wanted to record long TV shows, like football games,
early VHS was technically superior to Beta.  Ada is technically
superior to C for reliable software, which few want, and perhaps
for embedded software, for which there are few Ada 95 compilers.
It may in fact be superior for quick and dirty Windows software
too, but few know that and fewer will take the time to learn.
<end rant>

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