At 05:19 PM 9/6/00 -0500, W. Wesley Groleau x4923 wrote:

>I guess I should have said, "Most _articles_ in that mag pretend Ada
>doesn't exist."


The sad news is, they're NOT "pretending".  They genuinely don't know any
better.  They haven't a clue.

As I point out in my software sucks! lecture, the overwhelming majority of
people working in the software industry, for all their individual
brilliance, talent, hard work, etc., really and truly don't know much at
all about software, period, let alone programming languages.  And a major
reason they are so uninformed is that the overwhelming majority of what
they have been taught in a "traditional" Computer Science program is
misleading and irrelevant, at best, if not just plain wrong.  And that
comes from the fact that the overwhelming majority of C. S. faculty (and
again, in spite of their brilliance and hard work) just never take the time
to do science or engineering, but rather "join the band wagon" and just
play whatever game happens to be in vogue.

I apologize for "getting on the soap box", especially to "the choir".  But
we really do have to be realistic about what's going on out there.  As
others have pointed out, if WE don't take the time and effort to
objectively articulate the (many) advantages of using Ada in as many ways
and places as possible, those people who would be willing to learn about
Ada will rarely have a chance to do so.

I am not very well known for my writing, because I have tended to prefer
doing real development work, etc.  However, in all modesty, I think I do
write rather well.  If anyone has a good story (case study) to tell, but is
reticent to get into the publishing game, I will be happy to review,
critique, comment on your work and help get it in shape - as often as
necessary to satisfy whatever editor.

This brings up a point I raised to the SIGAda Executive Committee about a
year ago.  There is a WONDERFUL Ada Success story in a Denver (actually
Littleton, I believe) based company called Omnitech Robotics.  The last I
knew Ann Brandon was going to look into it for the ARA.  Does anyone know
what the status of writing that story is?  I volunteered to help - even go
to Denver if necessary to help out - but no one has asked for my help yet.

I suspect that a major reason there aren't more articles on Ada is that
those of us who should be writing them tend to be just very busy doing
other things.  Perhaps with just a little more disciplined effort to get
stuff published we can turn this thing around.

sro

S. Ron Oliver, semi-retired professor of Computer Science and Computer
Engineering.  www.csc.calpoly.edu/~sroliver

Tire of sucky software! ?  Check out www.caressCorp.com and follow the
links to software sucks and The Oliver Academy.