Appropriate usage of Ada vs other languages

Appropriate usage of Ada vs other languages

[Marc Gibian SUD x 3393]

The selection of programming language is something that most projects, and 
engineers, seem to take likely.  Idealy, this choice involves consideration
of all the various tradeoffs for the languages under consideration.  The
Ada language carries a large number of implications, more than usual due
to the wide scope of the language and its Run Time Environment.  Some of
the negative factors that are incured by Ada are cost of toolset, size of
generated code, newness (i.e. unreliability) of the toolset.

I am by no means an advocate of Ada for all applications.  (In fact, I am
a strong voice in opposition to many of the standard -defense- ways of doing
things are here at Raytheon).  I think there are parts of Ada that are 
abysmal, and there are others that are quite fine.  What I am saying is that
the language to be used should be carefully considered.  It should not be 
unconditionally chosen for every project.  Specifically, while there are 
Ada compilers appearing for IBM/PCs, they are indeed very expensive items.  
Therefore, they are not for the casual user.  Use c or some other cheep and 
widely available language if you can not support the cost of the compiler.  
Choose Ada if you can affort the cost, AND need it's features.
-- 

Marc S. Gibian
Senior Software Engineer
SSL, Raytheon 
phone: (617) 440-3393
mail:  gibian@turbo.ray.com
   or  gibian@sud.ray.com