I saw that a while ago.  I'd love to know more about the dataset behind it as Larry asked, FWIW: Pascal/Delphi being big did not surprise me as it was what was taught in the colleges in the 70s.   Today they are teaching Python and Java so we see generations of new programmers going into the world with those skills (like my own daughter). Larry - I think the way to explain Ada, is that it was very big for a while when DoD, DoC and some of DoE when USG bids required it.  But as fast as it rose, it fell pretty fast from favor.

--- Larry McVoy                  lm at mcvoy.com <http://mcvoy.com> http://www.mcvoy.com/lm _______________________________________________ COFF mailing list COFF(a)minnie.tuhs.org <mailto:COFF@minnie.tuhs.org> https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff _______________________________________________ COFF mailing list COFF(a)minnie.tuhs.org https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff

On 3/19/20 11:04 AM, Clem Cole wrote: Actually, since the DOD's Ada Language System was being tested on the dual 11/780 Vaxes I supported at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey -- the language was just part of what was in the works. This was back in the 1983 timeframe. Wikipedia shows that the DOD had a contract from 1977 to 1983 to come up with the OS which was supposedly targeted at embedded and real-time systems. At the time there were tons of different small C-compilers used on different parts of the same project -- with the ton of licenses required for each chip and RTOS supported. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)#Standardization Softech's Ada Language system had its hooks so far into VAX/VMS 3.x that shutting down the VAX/VMS system would crash the machine with a bugcheck. I think somewhere there was a thought of a single Ada environment and programming tools across the various operating systems. I think the government wanted to standardize the military deveopment process... which at the time used a jumble of languages, embedded systems and RTOS's from various vendors with convoluted make files tied to the development environments for each part of a military intelligence/weapons system. A bit of a bitch to maintain -- any change to one part could keep the rest from building. After Softech... NYU (IIRC) developed what is now known as GNAT -- the Gnu NYU Ada After my DEC job I did a couple of years as a system admin along with my wife. We were building a new piece of software and she had the target system. Fun when the embedded C compiler 100 lines in the build script suddenly goes out of license complience and stops building for no real reason... And the sysadmin has no docs as to how this builds. At the same time the government canceled a project to build a standard military computer family (chip) which I think was the original idea and end target for all of this. RCA, GE and others were trying to develop this but the release of the MicroVax2 kind of took the wind out of the sails -- and the Patriot missile (IIRC) used a Raytheon built box using the uVax chip set. (Don't know if this is the board used then but it's of a similar timeframe)... https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102757133 It was the Reagan admin and it was very different times in software with more contractors working in different locations on pieces of projects and the integration was difficult. Bill -- Digital had it then. Don't you wish you could buy it now! pechter-at-gmail.com http://xkcd.com/705/ _______________________________________________ COFF mailing list COFF(a)minnie.tuhs.org https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff

PHP was the BASIC of the late 90s and early 2000s; Javascript was (and is) the BASIC of the subsequent generation. I mean that, of course, in both good and bad ways, and as someone whose initial experience was BASIC in the ROMs of Apple IIs and C64s. Bad in that neither one is a well-(or even particularly-intentionally) designed language. Good in that it's easy to get the results you want with some iteration and very little theory or formal training; a novice can bootstrap/cargo-cult something into being pretty easily. Adam On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 8:04 AM Clem Cole &lt;clemc(a)ccc.com&gt; wrote: