Well I guess I'll get my two cents in on this one.  I think Mr. Paige
has always had in the back of his mind to rescind the Ada mandate.  I
don't believe he was ever sincere about keeping Ada alive.  When I
heard him speak at a TriAda (Baltimore I believe) and then spoke with
him directly, he seemed very non-enthusiastic about Ada's longevity.  I
pretty much feel that he abandoned Ada entirely.

I think a better approach (given that the mandate was being dropped)
would have been to stipulate that a language had to coordinate, to
some degree, with other languages.  Ada is by far the best here.  I
can't say, to the fullest extent, how C or C++ or anything else matches
up to Ada in this respect.

I don't have a problem with engineering "creative license" through
self-expression (C, Java, whatever).  I do, however, have a problem
when these software pearls (typically in C) do not interact well with
Ada.  It can be equated to USA red-neckism in that everyone should be
speaking American English and forsake other languages.  Well I myself
take pride in learning new languages (verbal or software) so that I can
better express myself.  Either we all speak the same language or
mutually cooperate with others.  Since noone wants to be asimulated
(sp?) than mutually coordination is then needed.

Mr. Paige's decision I think will profoundly hurt Ada's chance of even
maintaing a niche market.  We all know that Ada is technically better
than other languages.  Why has he taken the "If your friends want to
walk off a cliff, do you have to follow?" attitude?  When something
is right we need to keep it alive.

That seems more than two cents worth doesn't it! :-)

Chris Sparks
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