From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 15 Jan 92 14:25:27 GMT From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps. ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!udecc.engr.udayton.edu!blackbird.afit.af.mil! lonex.rl.af.mil!vanderwerkend@ (Dan Vanderwerken) Subject: Re: Ada 9X paper Message-ID: <1992Jan15.142527.5277@lonex.rl.af.mil> List-Id: In article <1992Jan07.142237.9959@news.mentorg.com> samg@roguecom (Sam Griffith x7588) writes: >I was wondering where I can get an Ada 9X draft paper? Also, I took Ada >in school about 4 years ago, and I was wondering what the job market is like >for Ada programmers. I have been doing OOP work for 5 years now, and most of >it has been in C++, Obj-C and Smalltalk. > We're working on a small Ada project (about 50,000 lines of code). My SW contractor has had difficulty finding people who _really_ know Ada to work for him. One of the questions they ask an interviewee is "What is the difference between a derived-type and a sub-type?" Surprisingly enough, not everyone they interview (who supposedly "knows" Ada) can answer this question. Apparently, most DOD Ada applications have had complexities on the order of simply replacing Fortran with Ada. Our application involves a distributed arcitecture, multi-tasking, and a number of binding requirements (X-Windows and POSIX). We've had a number of difficulties finding an Ada compiler which actually performs well enough to meet our needs. Most of the Ada compilers simply have too many bugs to be useful. Even more "mature" compilers have demonstrate d enough bugs to make them worthless. In fact, we are betting a lot that the "latest" version of a certain compiler will have much needed features and "fixed" bugs. This situation is very frustrating because my software contractor has spent the past few month running around trying to get an Ada compiler that actually works (or working bug fixes) rather than designing code. I can't blame them too much because a working Ada compiler is sort of on the critical path to success in our development effort. Some of the more "unique" (are they really all that unique?) things we're now doing are: 1. Writing TCP/IP Ada code which provide the functionality of pipes and remote procedure calls for this distributed architecture system. We need to be able to connect (for example) an personal computer to a workstation. 2. Building a subset of the Ada POSIX interface as defined in the IEEE drft spec 1003.5 (which recently failed in balloting). We still need these services and must now build them ourselves. 3. Trying to find X-Windows bindings which work well with our design (we have a fairly good handle on this now). Every time we find an Ada compiler bug, we spend about two days trying to isolate the problem and finding a robust work-around solution. I've spent enough time complaining about Ada compiler bugs, does anybody have any information pertaining to Ada code which provides TCP/IP interprocess communication functions and also POSIX interface code which is available to the DoD? ---Dan--- -- + Captain Daniel F. Van Der Werken, Jr., USAF | I do not speak for the Air + Rome Laboratory/OCDS | Force, otherwise I'll be + Griffiss AFB, NY 13441 | in Kansas making big rocks + (315) 330-4441/DSN 587-4441 | into little rocks!