Ada - buzzword or not? (Was: Ada-Europe 2007 early registration deadline approaching)

Ada - buzzword or not? (Was: Ada-Europe 2007 early registration deadline approaching)

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

[ XFUT comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada ]

Hugh wrote:
> Dirk Craeynest wrote:

>>                    12th International Conference on
>>            Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe 2007
>>
>>                 25 - 29 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland
>>
>>             http://www.ada-europe.org/conference2007.html

> Seem to remember ADA was a common buzzword 15 years ago, [...]

I've never percieved Ada as a buzzword.

> Does anyone still use it or is it another of those 80's type
> defuncto type language like Pascal and Modulo2?

I use it.  I have done it since Ada was added to GCC in 1994-95.  And
I know of one software engineering school where it is tought and one
more where the professors keeps it for themselves here in Denmark.

Greetings,

Jacob
-- 
Black Hole: Where the universe made a Divide by Zero.

Re: Ada - buzzword or not? (Was: Ada-Europe 2007 early registration deadline approaching)

[Chris Hills]

In article <ygezm3gqajm.fsf_-_@hugin.crs4.it>, Jacob Sparre Andersen 
<sparre@nbi.dk> writes
>[ XFUT comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada ]
>
>Hugh wrote:
>> Dirk Craeynest wrote:
>
>>>                    12th International Conference on
>>>            Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe 2007
>>>
>>>                 25 - 29 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland
>>>
>>>             http://www.ada-europe.org/conference2007.html
>
>> Seem to remember ADA was a common buzzword 15 years ago, [...]
>I've never percieved Ada as a buzzword.

Me neither it is the name of a language.

>> Does anyone still use it or is it another of those 80's type
>> defuncto type language like Pascal and Modulo2?
>
>I use it.  I have done it since Ada was added to GCC in 1994-95.  And
>I know of one software engineering school where it is tought and one
>more where the professors keeps it for themselves here in Denmark.

I think Ada is less popular than it was (a statement of numerical fact 
not a comment on the language itself) other languages are used more 
often. However Ada still has a very large part of the safety critical 
market.  Some areas would use nothing else.

Pascal and Modular 2 are all but defunct.  There are too many companies 
with a vested interest in Ada to let it go quietly.

-- 
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills  Staffs  England     /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ chris@phaedsys.org      www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Re: Ada - buzzword or not? (Was: Ada-Europe 2007 early registration deadline approaching)

[Niklas Holsti]

Chris Hills wrote:

> I think Ada is less popular than it was (a statement of numerical fact 
> not a comment on the language itself) other languages are used more 
> often. However Ada still has a very large part of the safety critical 
> market.  Some areas would use nothing else.
> 
> Pascal and Modular 2 are all but defunct.  There are too many companies 
> with a vested interest in Ada to let it go quietly.

Not only companies -- there are many individuals who use it by 
preference (I am one of these) and who maintain its implementations, for 
example the GCC/GNAT compiler on various Linux distros (alas I am not 
one of these).

I would describe Ada as an industrial strength implementation of the 
ideas in Pascal, Modula 2 and CLU, with a strong guiding philosophy but 
enough pragmatics to make implementations practical and efficient. The 
Ada WikiBook http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:Ada is a good 
introduction to the language.

-- 
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
       .      @       .

Re: Ada - buzzword or not? (Was: Ada-Europe 2007 early registration deadline approaching)

[Lucretia]

On Jun 4, 2:08 pm, Chris Hills <c...@phaedsys.org> wrote:
> In article <ygezm> >> Does anyone still use it or is it another of those 80's type
> >> defuncto type language like Pascal and Modulo2?

It is still used on simulators, aeroplanes, rail netowrks, etc.

> >I use it.  I have done it since Ada was added to GCC in 1994-95.  And
> >I know of one software engineering school where it is tought and one
> >more where the professors keeps it for themselves here in Denmark.

I was taught it at university, but they moved onto Java. I came back
to Ada a couple of years ago and do all my work with it if possible.

> I think Ada is less popular than it was (a statement of numerical fact
> not a comment on the language itself) other languages are used more
> often. However Ada still has a very large part of the safety critical
> market.  Some areas would use nothing else.
>
> Pascal and Modular 2 are all but defunct.  There are too many companies
> with a vested interest in Ada to let it go quietly.

Aye, plus it's a decent language ;)

Luke.

Re: Ada - buzzword or not? (Was: Ada-Europe 2007 early registration deadline approaching)

[Chris Hills]

In article <466415b3$0$8389$39db0f71@news.song.fi>, Niklas Holsti 
<niklas.holsti@nospam.please> writes
>Chris Hills wrote:
>
>> I think Ada is less popular than it was (a statement of numerical 
>>fact not a comment on the language itself) other languages are used 
>>more often. However Ada still has a very large part of the safety 
>>critical market.  Some areas would use nothing else.
>>  Pascal and Modular 2 are all but defunct.  There are too many 
>>companies  with a vested interest in Ada to let it go quietly.
>
>Not only companies -- there are many individuals who use it by 
>preference (I am one of these) and who maintain its implementations, 
>for example the GCC/GNAT compiler on various Linux distros (alas I am 
>not one of these).

Individuals are irrelevant. There are still individuals using forth, 
oberon, pascal,  modula3, small talk and many other languages.  It needs 
the companies to produce industrial strength tools and companies ot 
specify the use of the language on major projects.


>I would describe Ada as an industrial strength implementation of the 
>ideas in Pascal, Modula 2 and CLU, with a strong guiding philosophy but 
>enough pragmatics to make implementations practical and efficient.

Sounds reasonable to me.

> The Ada WikiBook http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:Ada is a 
>good introduction to the language.
>

-- 
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills  Staffs  England     /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ chris@phaedsys.org      www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/