Re: vs Ada - Don't forget the prime directive!

[blakemor@software.org (Alex Blakemore)]

In article <311@trwacs.UUCP> erwin@trwacs.UUCP (Harry Erwin) writes:
> Barry Boehm has noted, however, that there are major types
> of software that Ada is very poor at implementing (simulations,
> parallel processing in open environments, test generation
> code, anything involving pointers to functions, anything
> that approaches the full generality of a Turing Machine--
> although you can still implement a Turing Machine in Ada--
> most AI applications). 

  I know of several people that write simulators in Ada for Nasa and
have done so for years.  From what I've seen of their code, Ada
has been a natural fit.  Why do you think Ada is "very poor" in this
area? Because Barry Boehm or anyone else says so is not a vey convincing
argument.   Can you at least post a reference to this seminal work?

  My last company developed two successful AI applications in Ada
They even made money (natural language translation within a limited domain)
I agree Ada doesnt support all the run time flexibility typically used
by AI hackers.  Ada is not a natural tool for experimenting with AI concepts 
and algorithms, but once you've chosen a technique data structure or algorithm,
you can most likely express it in Ada.  The president of a company I used
to work for would assert that even AI programs consisted of 80-90% ordinary
software (managing files, communication, DBMS, printing whatever) and that
the novel "AI" algorithm was only part of a complete application.  If this
is true, the support for software engineering in Ada could really help
in the development of that part of the application. 

  Why is it more difficult to write test generators in Ada than
any other language?

  Of course, you can simulate a Turing machine in Ada and of course
the language was designed to discourage arbitrary use gotos, etc.
That's good.

  By the way, (nit picking at semantics) not only is Ada "very poor 
at implementing" certain systems, Ada CAN'T implement, any type of software.
It's only a tool.
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Alex Blakemore           blakemore@software.org        (703) 742-7125
Software Productivity Consortium  2214 Rock Hill Rd, Herndon VA 22070