From: Robert Leif To: Carlos Araya and James Richardson. I totally agree with James Richardson. " I don't think a lengthy Java v. Ada conversation going on in this list
would do much for the state of FOP as we know it, either...." Carlos Araya wrote: "3. What compilers currently available as open source can compile ADA as a cross platform product like Java's bytecode?" -- -- -- GNAT DOCUMENTS -- -- -- -- G N A T I N F O . T X T -- -- -- -- GNAT version 3.13p -- -- -- -- Copyright (C) 1992 - 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. -- -- -- -- GNAT is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under -- -- terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Soft- -- -- ware Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later ver- -- -- sion. GNAT is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITH- -- -- OUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY -- -- or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License -- -- for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General -- -- Public License distributed with GNAT; see file COPYING. If not, write -- -- to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, -- -- MA 02111-1307, USA. -- -- -- -- GNAT was originally developed by the GNAT team at New York University. -- -- It is now maintained by Ada Core Technologies Inc (http://www.gnat.com). -- -- -- http://www.gnat.com/ Very good, but expensive ftp://ftp.cs.nyu.edu/pub/gnat/3.13p/ free For more information see http://www.adapower.com/ -----Original Message----- From: Carlos Araya [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 2:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: HELP DRIVER! Robert: It may be so, Ada may indeed be 1000% more robust than Java, however this being an open source development effort I question your proclamation that everything should switch to Ada on 3 levels: 1. How many Ada programmers do you know who have the time commitment and dedication to stay with an open source project. If I remember correctly the few Ada programmers I know are booked solid for the next couple years. 2. How serious are you about retraining all the developers who contribute code to FOP (starting with the original developer who still has commit privileges) in a language who, for many, is an unknown. It's easier to demand a better language and more and more stuff but we also need to remember that these folks are doing it for free, on their own time. 3. What compilers currently available as open source can compile ADA as a cross platform product like Java's bytecode? If there are any (I'm only familiar with ADA through people who work with it) are they deployed as widely as the JDK/JRE is for Java? If it's that important to you that the code is written in Ada, go ahead, get the source and translate it, then come show us how wrong we were. Until then I honestly don't think it should change... It's not just an exercise on how powerful the underlying language is but on how many people uses it And, with all due respect, What on earth do the 777 and the french railroad have to do with this discussion? Carlos On 01/16/02 14:20, "Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Bob Leif, > To: James Richardson > I am dead serious. Evidently, you have had no experience with Ada 95. > Ada is much better at modeling XML than Java. I realize that Java is a > marketing success. Unfortunately, it is based to a great extent on > obsolete technology. For instance, it lacks: generics (templates), > enumerated types, and range checking. Ada is also safe enough for the > Boeing 777 flight control system and the French railroads. > > -----Original Message----- > From: James Richardson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 9:38 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: HELP DRIVER! > > Robert C. Leif, Ph.D. wrote: > >> >> >> From: Bob Leif, >> It seems that the Java underlying FOP is a source of a significant >> number of problems. I would suggest that the developers switch to a > much >> more reliable and efficient object oriented technology, Ada. Since Ada >> is an ISO standard and has an extensive validation suite, it is much >> more portable than Java. The GNAT (GNU) Ada compiler can produce both > J >> codes and fully compiled executables. >> > > > > Wow, is it April already? > > -- Carlos E. Araya ---+ WebCT Administrator/Trainer P | California Virtual Campus - | C/O De Anza College G | 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd ---+ Cupertino, CA 95014 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] web http://www.cvc1.org/ (work) http://www.silverwolf-net.net (personal) phone 408 257 0420 (work) PGP Fingerprint: E629 5DFD 7EAE 4995 E9D7 3D2F 5A9F 0CE7 DFE7 1756 Paradoxically, a refusal to 'put a monetary value on life' means that life is often undervalued. -- Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
