9 ms·

No mention of Ada in 1996? How rude!

lamarpye 8y ago
I've spent a large percentage of my life in bookstores and I have never seen an Ada book. I've never met an Ada programmer or met someone who knew an Ada programmer. Is there any proof that the language actually existed? Maybe it was a CIA plot to trick the commies into wasting their time.
- Jtsummers 8y ago
  There is the theory it was a Cold War weapon of economic warfare. But the US government employs a lot of Ada programmers so it seems to have backfired.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  I have bought a couple of them during the mid-90's in Lisbon technical bookstores for university students. Our university library also had a couple. Indeed our university library was a treasure well for anyone doing the compiler design and systems lectures.
  - ttsda 8y ago
    As a student in Lisbon, may I ask which university?
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      FCT/UNL, back in the mid 90's. Smalltalk, Concurrent Pascal, Oberon, Concurrent C, ML, Eiffel, *Lisp, Algol, Ada, and many more on the library section available to Master/Phd students.
      - ttsda 8y ago
        Very interesting. I'm very disappointed at the state of my faculty's library (FCUL). Even landmark works by the most influential of computer scientists are missing, being in their place endless copies of mindless "for dummies" garbage from the 90s and 00s.
- cpach 8y ago
  Surely your comment was written in jest, but one example of companies that uses (or used) Ada is SAAB: https://www.adacore.com/press/saab-signs-corporate-wide-software-license-with-adacore https://www.adacore.com/press/saab-signs-corporate-wide-soft...
- exitcode00 8y ago
  Why not learn it now? : ) https://learn.adacore.com/ https://learn.adacore.com/
- cafard 8y ago
  I might still have an Ada book around the house, and I may have met somebody who used Ada outside of school. As for the CIA, have a look at http://home.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/sigplannotices/gigo-1997-04.html http://home.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/sigplannotices/gigo-1997-0... .
- rkangel 8y ago
  That's because Ada's entire usage is corporate environments. If textbooks do exist, then they would be marketed to companies not consumers, as that's who would be paying.

I've spent a large percentage of my life in bookstores and I have never seen an Ada book. I've never met an Ada programmer or met someone who knew an Ada programmer. Is there any proof that the language actually existed? Maybe it was a CIA plot to trick the commies into wasting their time.

Jtsummers 8y ago
There is the theory it was a Cold War weapon of economic warfare. But the US government employs a lot of Ada programmers so it seems to have backfired.
pjmlp 8y ago
I have bought a couple of them during the mid-90's in Lisbon technical bookstores for university students. Our university library also had a couple. Indeed our university library was a treasure well for anyone doing the compiler design and systems lectures.
- ttsda 8y ago
  As a student in Lisbon, may I ask which university?
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    FCT/UNL, back in the mid 90's. Smalltalk, Concurrent Pascal, Oberon, Concurrent C, ML, Eiffel, *Lisp, Algol, Ada, and many more on the library section available to Master/Phd students.
    - ttsda 8y ago
      Very interesting. I'm very disappointed at the state of my faculty's library (FCUL). Even landmark works by the most influential of computer scientists are missing, being in their place endless copies of mindless "for dummies" garbage from the 90s and 00s.
cpach 8y ago
Surely your comment was written in jest, but one example of companies that uses (or used) Ada is SAAB: https://www.adacore.com/press/saab-signs-corporate-wide-software-license-with-adacore https://www.adacore.com/press/saab-signs-corporate-wide-soft...
exitcode00 8y ago
Why not learn it now? : ) https://learn.adacore.com/ https://learn.adacore.com/
cafard 8y ago
I might still have an Ada book around the house, and I may have met somebody who used Ada outside of school. As for the CIA, have a look at http://home.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/sigplannotices/gigo-1997-04.html http://home.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/sigplannotices/gigo-1997-0... .
rkangel 8y ago
That's because Ada's entire usage is corporate environments. If textbooks do exist, then they would be marketed to companies not consumers, as that's who would be paying.