Recent Additions to the "Who's Using Ada" Report

Recent Additions to the "Who's Using Ada" Report

[Michael Feldman]

Attached are some new additions to my list of non-defense projects known 
to be using Ada. Many of these have come from Lori Heyman and Philippe
Kruchten of Rational, and from Dirk Craeynest of the University of
Louvain, Belgium. Reports of most of the Belgian ones have appeared
in the Ada-Belgium Newsletter.

Perhaps the most interesting entry is the one from Belgium showing
Ada applied to Jacquard knitting machines and other textile looms.
Those who know their computer history will recall that the Jacquard
loom was developed in France in the 18th century, and was "programmed"
with a very early version of the punched card. From the Jacquard loom
(and the music box) came the punched-roll player piano, from which
Herman Hollerith - in 1885 or so - got the idea for the punched card
used in the 1890 census. The rest, as they say, is history.

What goes around, comes around. Perhaps the real Ada would be proud...

Happy reading. Let me know by e-mail if you need a copy of the full
list (now about 6 pages long). I will post the revised one soon.

Mike Feldman
(list follows sig)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------------------------------------------

USA	AAI: Commercial fire-fighter simulator/trainer, Rational.

USA	General Electric: Satellite communications ground station (known
	as the Second TDRSS Ground Terminal), Rational.

USA	Honeywell: Airplane Information Management System (AIMS) for the
	Boeing 777, Rational.

USA	JEOL USA, Inc.: Delta - Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer
	Control, Data Processing and Visualization, Irix(SGI UNIX),
	SGI/Ada & SGI/MP-Ada (Verdix 6.2f based).

USA	NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Cassini orbiter spacecraft to
	Saturn, Rational.

Belgium	Eurocontrol Brussels: Central Flow Management Unit (air traffic
	control), HP 9000/HP-UX, Alsys.

Belgium ICT Automatisering: STAS-300 - automatic operation of liquid
	fuels depots, VAX/VMS, DEC Ada.

Belgium Meersschaert N.V.: Software for weaving-looms and jacquard-
	machines.

Belgium	Spacebel Informatique S.A.: Mock-up software for Hermes space
	shuttle localisation, Sun3, TLD Ada (HSDE).

Belgium	Spacebel Informatique S.A.: VICOS - Verification and Integration
	Check Out System for space station Columbus test beds, Verdix.

Belgium	Spacebel Informatique S.A.: USS - User Support Services, library
	of embedded software for space station Columbus Data Management
	System, Sun 3/4, Alsys.

Belgium	Trasys: DIMOS - Distributed Monitoring System for nuclear power
	plant, 300,000 lines, VAX/VMS & VAX/ELN, DEC Ada.

Belgium Trasys: Application software of CANAC air traffic control system
	for Brussels national airport.

Belgium	Trasys: NGP - Navigation, Guidance and Piloting, prototyping of
	part of embedded software of Hermes space shuttle, Sun SPARC,
	Verdix.

Belgium	Trasys: prototyping of Core System and Mission Management for
	Columbus space station.

Belgium	Trasys: software for test benches of ARIANE 5 rocket.

Belgium	Trasys: PRODOS - dosimetry control system for nuclear power
	plant.

Canada	Hughes: CAATS - Canadian Air Traffic Control System, Rational.

France	SNCF: Astree program - project for automatic train control,
	Rational.

UK	IBM: NERC Program (New Enroute Center) - air traffic control,
	Rational.

UK	Ferranti International: Generic tools to build nuclear power
	station monitoring systems, Rational.

UK	Ferranti (customer is Nuclear Electric): Advanced Gas-Cooled
	Reactor (AGR) refurbishment program, Rational.

---end-of-new-entries---------------------------------------------------

Re: Recent Additions to the "Who's Using Ada" Report

[Jonathan Parker]

In article <1993Mar19.205428.7061@seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu  
(Michael Feldman) writes:
> ...Perhaps the most interesting entry is the one from Belgium showing
> Ada applied to Jacquard knitting machines and other textile looms.
> Those who know their computer history will recall that the Jacquard
> loom was developed in France in the 18th century, and was "programmed"
> with a very early version of the punched card. From the Jacquard loom
> (and the music box) came the punched-roll player piano, from which
> Herman Hollerith - in 1885 or so - got the idea for the punched card
> used in the 1890 census. The rest, as they say, is history.
> 
> What goes around, comes around. Perhaps the real Ada would be proud...
> 
Funny, I was just reading a Scientific American article on Babbage's
Analytical Engine (Feb. 1993, by Doron Swade).  The programs that Ada 
wrote were meant to have been entered into the engine by Jacquard loom
inspired punch cards.  Here's an extended quote from the article:

  "Babbage's reputation as computer pioneer largely rests on another,
more sophisticated device - the Analytical Engine, conceived by 1834.
He intended the Analytical Engine as a general-purpose programmable
computing machine, whose features are startlingly similar to those of  
modern
electronic computers.  It has a basic repertoire of operations (addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division) that it could execute in any
sequence.  The internal architecture of the machine featured a separate
"store" and "mill," equivalent to the memory and processor in a modern
computer.  The separation of store and mill has been a dominant feature
of electronic computers since the mid-1940s. 
  "The Analytical Engine could be programmed by using punch card, a  
technique
previously used in the Jacquard loom to control the patterns of woven
thread.  The Analytical Engine could take alternative courses of action
depending on the result of a calculation, enabling it to perform
complex functions...

--Jonathan 

Re: Recent Additions to the "Who's Using Ada" Report

[Michael Feldman]

In article <C49rvn.n0A@nist.gov> parker@bruce.nist.gov (Jonathan Parker) writes:
>> 
>Funny, I was just reading a Scientific American article on Babbage's
>Analytical Engine (Feb. 1993, by Doron Swade).  The programs that Ada 
>wrote were meant to have been entered into the engine by Jacquard loom
>inspired punch cards.  
>

Indeed. I had completely forgotten this. So we've gone through the
following progression:

  Jacquard -> Babbage -> Ada -> Ada -> Jacquard

As I said, what goes around, comes around.

Cheers -

Mike