「 Putting the focus on memory safety is more than a little suspect when the worst CVEs come from programmers not putting in basic checks for path traversal and forgetting to fully check user credentials. What is also worrying is the complete lack of any reference to the favorite language of the military, medical, and aviation fields where things going boom (prematurely) is generally considered a bad thing: Ada 」
A lot is changing in the world of Ada programming language recently. There is now the Alire package manager which is also a complete project, build and toolchain management tool.
All you need is to download Alire and you can start programming in Ada, using hundreds of "crates" already available in the package repository. It will also download the right compiler for your platform automatically.
Ada also features a LSP-compatible language server, a VS Code extension and ada-mode for Emacs and Eglot support.
The language itself is standardised (Ada 2022 was ratified recently, although 2012 is the most used version), free and open-source, FSF/GCC supported.
Lot's of excellent free training material is available, "Ada Distilled" from Richard Riehle is one of the best. Also there is an online course on the AdaCore website.
Ada is perceived as the language used by security and mission-critical industries, but it is really a general-purpose language that can be used from low-level system programming to high level GUI applications, it has an easy FFI and many bindings to C/C++ libraries are already available (i.e. Qt).
Ada had a devroom at FOSDEM 2019 with interesting talks for anyone who wants to get a first impression:
Ada is easy to learn and has many interesting concepts. Its strict type system, Pascal-like syntax, cross-compiling and concurrency built-in to the language are some of its most unique features.
Give it a try, you'll be surprised how fast you can get started and how easy it is to learn.
I would like to see Ada grow. Its clean syntax, rich expressive capabilities, and early error detection by the compiler due to strict typing create a very pleasant experience during development. This year, the language got a new standard. Recently, a package manager and a community index were created. There’s an extension/LSP for vscode, etc. Along with great educational materials on learn.adacore.com, it’s easy to pick up and start using this language.
Hi! I'm Morgan, a #Software engineer living in western #EU. I work as a lead developer, with an increasing focus on the #HumanFactors involved in making software. I'm also pursuing a #Psychology degree with the aim of becoming a better #UX#UI designer. When I write code I use #Java and #Typescript but i'd like to go back to #Ada someday.
I also love #Music (yes, all of it)! Share your favorite song with me! 🎶 I'm learning how to play #Drums and might dip my toes into #MusicProduction in the future.
I've been interested in decentralized tech like #Matrix and #IPFS for quite some time. And I still hold a tiny bit of hope that #Blockchain might yield something good eventually (but I don't have a pyramid scheme to sell you I promise).
Which language you wish would really grow and reach mainstream adoption?
Assume mainstream adoption as used by around 7% of all github projects...