From: Anonymous on
> Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used, and in what area(s) does
> it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching, graphics, etc? TIA..

Ada was never widely used. It could have been, because it's one of the all
time great general purpose languages. There's probably no better or more
flexible HLL. However, various factors combined to make it a niche language
and it doesn't have any hope of breaking out of that niche or getting the
use and exposure it deserves.

From: Duke Normandin on
On 2010-05-20, Anonymous <cripto(a)ecn.org> wrote:
>> Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used, and in what area(s) does
>> it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching, graphics, etc? TIA..
>
> Ada was never widely used. It could have been, because it's one of the all
> time great general purpose languages. There's probably no better or more
> flexible HLL. However, various factors combined to make it a niche language
> and it doesn't have any hope of breaking out of that niche or getting the
> use and exposure it deserves.
>

Well! Doesn't _that_ just suck! Tell me more about these "various factors" -
off this NG if you prefer. I need to make an informed decision as to whether
or not I should continue learning Ada.
--
Duke
*** Tolerance becomes a crime, when applied to evil [Thomas Mann] ***

From: Manuel Gomez on
On 20 mayo, 20:58, Duke Normandin <dukeofp...(a)ml1.net> wrote:
> > Here is a list of bindings which may be of interest (I'm not using this  
> > material myself, so cannot tell more):
> >http://archive.adaic.com/docs/flyers/free-bindings.html
>
> That URL is not much good - all the links are dead!
>
> Perhaps Ada should have a _real_ home, where it is guaranteed that noob
> students, and noob old farts like me will indeed find the resources needed
> to make Ada shine! ;)

Start at these websites, they contain much more updated information
thanks to the Ada community:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming
http://adacommons.org/Main_Page
http://wiki.ada-dk.org/index.php/Main_Page
From: Duke Normandin on
On 2010-05-20, Gautier write-only <gautier_niouzes(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> On May 20, 2:53�pm, Duke Normandin wrote:
>
>> Just curious to know if Ada is still widely used,
>
> AFAIK it has never been widely used (so you can forget the "still").
> As a language designed from scratch, it came too late to challenge
> established languages (among them, C). The first version was perhaps
> too rich to be competitive in the nascent microcomputing world - so it
> that sense, it was too early. But wait, we are still in 2010. Perhaps
> people in 2050 will ask themselves why the heck these fragile
> "#include", '}' and pointers-everywhere-paradigm were still in use in
> 2010...
>
>> and in what area(s) does it excel, e.g. data processing, number crunching, graphics, etc?
>
> It is excellent in these areas, and probably in many others...

So it would be fair to say that Ada is truly a "general-purpose" language?
--
Duke
*** Tolerance becomes a crime, when applied to evil [Thomas Mann] ***

From: Duke Normandin on
On 2010-05-20, Manuel Gomez <mgrojo(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20 mayo, 20:58, Duke Normandin <dukeofp...(a)ml1.net> wrote:
>> > Here is a list of bindings which may be of interest (I'm not using this �
>> > material myself, so cannot tell more):
>> >http://archive.adaic.com/docs/flyers/free-bindings.html
>>
>> That URL is not much good - all the links are dead!
>>
>> Perhaps Ada should have a _real_ home, where it is guaranteed that noob
>> students, and noob old farts like me will indeed find the resources needed
>> to make Ada shine! ;)
>
> Start at these websites, they contain much more updated information
> thanks to the Ada community:
>
> http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming
> http://adacommons.org/Main_Page
> http://wiki.ada-dk.org/index.php/Main_Page

Muchas gracias...
--
Duke Normandin
*** Tolerance becomes a crime, when applied to evil [Thomas Mann] ***