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Rust's cutting edge compiler is free, for one thing. I love Ada, but Adacore may well have killed any chance it had of being a commercially viable language (its

Rust's cutting edge compiler is free, for one thing. I love Ada, but Adacore may well have killed any chance it had of being a commercially viable language (its use declines precipitously each year, even in the defense and avionics industries where it used to be strong). Plus, Rust has a thriving community whereas thanks to Adacore, Ada has a dying one. Community is critical for programming languages. But otherwise, Ada is a brilliant and ultra safe language whose safety features go far beyond the memory and type safety that Rust features. It's a shame.

rwallace 8y ago
How did Adacore kill Ada?
pjmlp 8y ago
If anything Adacore has helped Ada a lot. It is the only Ada compiler available for free, fully updated to Ada 2012, with all the remaining ones are still on their 90's style prices. https://www.ptc.com/en/products/developer-tools/objectada https://www.ptc.com/en/products/developer-tools/objectada https://www.ghs.com/products/ada_optimizing_compilers.html https://www.ghs.com/products/ada_optimizing_compilers.html https://www.ddci.com/products_score/ https://www.ddci.com/products_score/ (frozen in Ada 95) Thanks to them Ada has become a regular presence at FOSDEM and is being teached at quite a few European university.
- abiox 8y ago
  according to wikipedia, their 'free' compiler is GPL without a linking exception. the comparison chart on their page also says it is 'for open source GPL software'.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    Apparently people keep forgetting without GPL, Linux would never happened.
    - jnbiche 8y ago
      GPL for an OS is I've thing. GPL for a compiler and runtime is entirely another, since only the latter forces any project you create with it too carry the GPL license.
      - pjmlp 8y ago
        Ah you mean gcc, the compiler that everyone ignored until Sun started the trend of UNIX vendors to charge for their compilers.
        jnbiche 8y ago
        GPL's runtime isn't GPL, it's got the runtime exception: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception-3.1.en.html https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception-3.1.en.html
        jnbiche 8y ago
        Sorry, I meant GCC's runtime isn't GPL.
    - CyberDildonics 8y ago
      No one is arguing that there is a place for the GPL.

rwallace 8y ago

How did Adacore kill Ada?

pjmlp 8y ago

If anything Adacore has helped Ada a lot. It is the only Ada compiler available for free, fully updated to Ada 2012, with all the remaining ones are still on their 90's style prices. https://www.ptc.com/en/products/developer-tools/objectada https://www.ptc.com/en/products/developer-tools/objectada https://www.ghs.com/products/ada_optimizing_compilers.html https://www.ghs.com/products/ada_optimizing_compilers.html https://www.ddci.com/products_score/ https://www.ddci.com/products_score/ (frozen in Ada 95) Thanks to them Ada has become a regular presence at FOSDEM and is being teached at quite a few European university.

abiox 8y ago
according to wikipedia, their 'free' compiler is GPL without a linking exception. the comparison chart on their page also says it is 'for open source GPL software'.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Apparently people keep forgetting without GPL, Linux would never happened.
  - jnbiche 8y ago
    GPL for an OS is I've thing. GPL for a compiler and runtime is entirely another, since only the latter forces any project you create with it too carry the GPL license.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      Ah you mean gcc, the compiler that everyone ignored until Sun started the trend of UNIX vendors to charge for their compilers.
      - jnbiche 8y ago
        GPL's runtime isn't GPL, it's got the runtime exception: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception-3.1.en.html https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception-3.1.en.html
        jnbiche 8y ago
        Sorry, I meant GCC's runtime isn't GPL.
  - CyberDildonics 8y ago
    No one is arguing that there is a place for the GPL.