One other factor I would mention is the massive uncoolness of Ada. This seems to come from three directions:
1. Invented by and for a bureaucracy known for its extravagance and wastefulness.
2. Verbosity of a degree only before seen in COBOL.
3. A focus on avoiding errors above all else. For people who have a positive/benefits focus like most hackers, this negative focus is very unappealing and provokes references to anal-retentive pedants and so forth.
I would agree with others who pointed out the other problem "won't run on a computer I can buy - and anyway I can't afford the compiler". This is not to criticise the compiler developers but nonetheless it was a problem.
1. Invented by and for a bureaucracy known for its extravagance and wastefulness.
2. Verbosity of a degree only before seen in COBOL.
3. A focus on avoiding errors above all else. For people who have a positive/benefits focus like most hackers, this negative focus is very unappealing and provokes references to anal-retentive pedants and so forth.
I would agree with others who pointed out the other problem "won't run on a computer I can buy - and anyway I can't afford the compiler". This is not to criticise the compiler developers but nonetheless it was a problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better