• Major industry marketing

  - Nothing equivalent for Ada

• Object-oriented programming support

  - Did not exist in Ada 83, but does in Ada 95

• Builds on popularity of C

  - C was free with UNIX operating systems

  - Students were taught C

  - Easier to move up to C++ than Ada

• Tools, bindings, visual environments and support abundantly available
  (based on origin)

  - Ada was isolated

From the Script: SLIDE 17 - Why C++?

If Ada is as good as I'm telling you it is, why does C++ enjoy such good favor in the marketplace? There are a variety of reasons:

· C++ has been marketed by the industry heavyweights. The DOD did not market Ada at all until just recently and, even now, the effort is limited. The DOD’s mission is defense; marketing, however important, is not a task to which DOD can commit itself.

· C++ features object-oriented programming support. Ada 83 did not fully implement this, but Ada 95 does.

· C++ builds on the popularity of C, which comes with UNIX operating systems. Most students have been taught C. The object-oriented extensions of C++ are easier to understand coming from a C background.

· C++ tools, bindings, visual environments and support are abundantly available from at least 18 compiler vendors. These compilers, however, are not necessarily interoperable, only part of the problem with nonstandard compilers. We will discuss this a little more in a moment.

· Ada 83 did not support decimal arithmetic, though the largest amount of software developed in the business world requires this feature. Ada 95 does fully support decimal arithmetic and, therefore, Management Information Systems (or MIS).

Now I will make a prediction that I hope will not end up in a presentation intro. In the foreseeable future, most MIS development will be automatically generated. Compiler languages will be used for large, complex system development with unique requirements, such as those in DOD.