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Yeah... my intro CS class was in C and Ada95 (I'm not a CS guy btw, just took the class). I actually preferred Ada over C... but continued to program in C for

Yeah... my intro CS class was in C and Ada95 (I'm not a CS guy btw, just took the class). I actually preferred Ada over C... but continued to program in C for other classes because of compiler availability; I had to do all my Ada programming on Sparc workstations at school. I personally think that AdaCore, and friends, missed an opportunity in the early 2000's to fully embrace open source... they left a big gap which Rust has filled nicely. I still think Ada is a great programming language. When a question comes up along the lines of: "what's the best programming language nobody's heard of?", or "what's the best programming language that is under used?" Ada is usually my first answer. I think other good answers include F#, <insert LISP flavor>, Odin, Prolog, Haxe, and Futhark (if you're into that sort of thing).

pjmlp 1y ago
We are on Ada 202x nowadays being discussed, and in a world where FOSS tool makers have problems making a sustainable business, always changing licenses, there are still 7 Ada vendors selling compilers.
- anthk 1y ago
  Libre compilers do not impose restrictions on output.
  - pjmlp 1y ago
    As long as there are enough people around to actually work on them.
  - fpoling 1y ago
    In embedded world restrictions on the output is the last thing of worries while fulfilling various certification requirements can be a big and costly headache. And from the vendor point of view releasing a compiler under libre license allows for concurrents to undercut one on R&D leading to the compiler and related tools certification. So from business point of view it just makes no sense. This is very different from contributing to, say, clang, where a cost of maintaining own closed fork outweighs any disadvantages of contributing.
- ummonk 1y ago
  And only AdaCore / GNAT will ever support Ada 202x. The language has left the legacy vendors behind.

pjmlp 1y ago

We are on Ada 202x nowadays being discussed, and in a world where FOSS tool makers have problems making a sustainable business, always changing licenses, there are still 7 Ada vendors selling compilers.

anthk 1y ago
Libre compilers do not impose restrictions on output.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  As long as there are enough people around to actually work on them.
- fpoling 1y ago
  In embedded world restrictions on the output is the last thing of worries while fulfilling various certification requirements can be a big and costly headache. And from the vendor point of view releasing a compiler under libre license allows for concurrents to undercut one on R&D leading to the compiler and related tools certification. So from business point of view it just makes no sense. This is very different from contributing to, say, clang, where a cost of maintaining own closed fork outweighs any disadvantages of contributing.
ummonk 1y ago
And only AdaCore / GNAT will ever support Ada 202x. The language has left the legacy vendors behind.