From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8264dac98bc604d8 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-03-11 19:15:20 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: sparky!uunet!seas.gwu.edu!mfeldman From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) Subject: Re: The actual quote from the Post AAS article Message-ID: <1993Mar11.213532.12259@seas.gwu.edu> Sender: news@seas.gwu.edu Organization: George Washington University References: <1no3fbINN3h7@umbc4.umbc.edu> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 21:35:32 GMT Date: 1993-03-11T21:35:32+00:00 List-Id: In article <1no3fbINN3h7@umbc4.umbc.edu> berman@umbc.edu (Mike Berman) writes: > [stuff deleted] >Out of a several hundred word (~60 column inch) article, Ada is mentioned >directly in one paragraph only: > > "Adding a further level of complexity was the > government's insistence that the entire project be done using a > new computer language called Ada. The federal government was > attempting to control a muddle of incompatible software > languages by standardizing, but many programmers had to learn > the exotic language from scratch." > >"... new ..."? "... exotic ..."?!? > [stuff deleted] > >The article is pretty straightforward in placing "blame" on all factors >taken in toto, not representing IBM's failures as failure due to the use >of Ada. In fact, it appears that the article's author knows little about >the language (or software engineering, or even programming, for that matter). >Let's face it, the "exotic" features of the language are the same or >less exotic than the features found in OOP languages. > >Any attempt to assert, based on the information in this article, that Ada >is the sole reason for failure, or even a major contributing factor, is >absurd. This project would have failed using any implementation >language. > Thanks for posting this, Mike. In fact, I was going to dig out Monday's paper and post this paragraph myself, then I bumped into yours. Anyone who knows anything about the FAA project knows that Ada has little or nothing to do with its success or failure. Ted's out there on his own again. Europe is rebuilding all its ATC systems in Ada; Ada is now the de facto standard language for new ATC systems world-wide. People I know who are close to the FAA project tell me that Europe's ATC problems are on a much smaller scale than ours - many fewer flights. I wish IBM and FAA well getting us a system we can use; you can read the Post article for details of the ups and downs. But don't point the finger at Ada. Oh - a word of warning - if you hate Ada, don't fly into Copenhagen. Cheers all - Mike Feldman ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Michael B. Feldman co-chair, SIGAda Education Committee Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science School of Engineering and Applied Science The George Washington University Washington, DC 20052 USA (202) 994-5253 (voice) (202) 994-5296 (fax) mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet) "The most important thing is to be sincere, and once you've learned how to fake that, you've got it made." -- old show-business adage ------------------------------------------------------------------------