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"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 17 Apr 1998 06:40:45 -0700
Reply-To:
Chris Sparks <[log in to unmask]>
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Chris Sparks <[log in to unmask]>
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Mike Brenner wrote:
>
> Bob Leif suggested (below) that Ada-95 be treated asthe successful
> successor to Java. This is a good marketing strategy and would be
> timely today. The only technical problem with it is the missing
> a bunch of interfaces. There is no standard way to light up dots,
> get ppp or serial bytes or keystrokes, or do the standard containers
> and communications classes.
>
> It seems that we should put together an estimate for funding this,
> seek the funding, and then put together these interfaces.

Bob Leif has very good ideas which, in my sole opinion, most of us
seem to ignore.  I commend him for his tenacity and ingenuity.  It
seems quite obvious to me that we, as a group, need to commit to
contributing (for free) to an effort that will help bring Ada notarity
and respect with the software community.  Sure we all talk at how
wonderful Ada is, however, where is our real power?  Most of us seem
to preach to the choir.  We need to have all of our components available
to software developers prior to them needing them.  I know how much I
dislike not having the proper tools for the job I have at hand.  This
would apply to software or anything else in life.  I hate having to
waste time reinventing the wheel.  A good example would be back a while
ago when I was looking into X related GUI builders for Ada (free ones
of course).  I stumbled across Xforms.  I thought "Wow, wonderful".
When it came down to me wanting to use the binaries in programs I
write, I double checked for royalty considerations.  A good practice
after having to deal with the AdaSAGE disappointment.  I learned that
I wouldn't have to pay if I gave my software away.  I would have to pay
otherwise.  Well the actual terms were unacceptable to me.  What
did this force me to do?  It forced me to come up with my own widget
development software in Ada 95.  I am almost at a point in integrating
it into another tool I wrote.  I feel quite accomplished, however, I
spent gads of time in doing this.  Time could have been spent on more
productive efforts.

I sure hope that we as a group can pull something off, for Ada's good.
We keep saying that we ought to, now lets get off the stick and do it!

Chris Sparks
Vent mode off......

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