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David Botton <[log in to unmask]>
Wed, 24 Nov 2004 16:46:10 -0500
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On Nov 24, 2004, at 4:17 PM, Dirk Craeynest wrote:

> David, all,
>
> = The Ada world as a whole often looks like it is crumbling...
>
> At times it may look that way, but I can assure you it isn't...
>

I beg to differ. Perception is everything. We need to start working on
this seriously and 2005 is the time to do it. In particular, leveraging
what we can to create a new image out of Ada 2005, etc.

> = There was a message posted on comp.lang.ada asking about what was
> = new at the SigAda conference. If no one answers this kind of post
> = it doesn't help to boost interest in SigAda, the conference or the
> = ultimately the language.
>
> I agree it is unfortunate that no one has responded to that posting
> yet.  I hope some of the participants will find the time to share
> their experiences.
>

The reason I called attention to it.

> However, please note that many of the almost 100 people who were
> registered for the SIGAda 2004 conference last week do *not* read the
> comp.lang.ada newsgroup and are *not* subscribed to Ada mailing lists.
> I suppose that most of the others are still busy clearing the backlog
> at work after being away for several days...
>

I am well aware of that. My comment was not personal to any one
(although those of us that take advocacy serious may feel it is
personally, which is a sign there is still hope :-)


> Keep an eye for some news about SIGAda 2004 in comp.lang.ada shortly.
>

It's not my eyes we need to work on. Comp.Lang.Ada is not high traffic
at this point at all. It would be worth while for those serious about
advocating Ada to get back on.

One of the things that hooked me on Ada was the people on CLA, some of
whom are still on, but a good many not. Now is a good time to
reconsider.... You all know who you are.

>
> At that time (5 years ago) Magnus seemed quite willing to cooperate
> and pass the maintenance of his earlier work to other people (FAQs,
> perhaps also AdaHome).
>

Sorry to say that was not the case, not for the FAQs and not for
AdaHome... I was there :-)

As is well known, he also locked up everything he did under restrictive
lic. to insure that no one could do anything about it either. I got
permission directly from the authors of various parts of the FAQ for
using their words in the new FAQ some time ago, but there is still much
that would have been nice to have included.

At this point I sadly have to assume he keeps adahome.com going as some
sort of spite thing.

BTW, that post was a real surprise at the time, he was already out of
communication then! I posted that after failing to contact him for some
time. In fact if you look back through CLA you will see I was
particular to tread very lightly and did not want to overlap in the
creation of the Ada Source Code Treasury / AdaPower with his site at
all until a good year passed and all hopes of anything happening with
him.

David Botton

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