Re: C to Ada translator/lessons learned

[dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!sol.ctr.]

In article <1993May24.235322.19707@source.asset.com>, vand@source.asset.com (La
urence VanDolsen) writes:
> In article <rlk.738270271@pelton> rlk@pelton.Rational.COM (Robert Kitzberger)
 writes:
>> 
>>      In addition to all the usual caveats, however, it should also be
>>      noted that translation itself is a controversial issue.
>> 
> [deleted interesting and valid observations]
>> 
>>      The resolution of such issues will require an understanding of
>>      the earlier code, an appreciation of the similarities and
>>      differences between its language and Ada, and an evaluation of
>>      the translation program under consideration.
>>
> One point often missed is that the organizations contemplating such
> translation are frequently just starting into Ada usage and may have no
> one on staff qualified to make this judgement.  If in doubt, rent an
> expert to help make the decision.
> 
> 

A warning to those who are contemplating such a job as translation of code
from one language to another:

We translated Intel PLM (c) to Ada,  while we got about a 90% yield
syntactically,  the functional yield was below 50%.  (it was fairly easy to
get to compile, but it didn't work)  The problem was our Ada experts didn't
know the application domain, and the application experts didn't know Ada
very well.  We had the experts, but their knowledge was too specialized to
make a good overall decision.   I think that we will gain about 20
man-years as a result of the translation, but I think management expected
more than that and was disturbed when we told them that there was still a
lot of work to do even though we translated a working system.
-- 
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Todd A Sorensen               Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems Division
505-828-5611                  internet: tsorense@dasd.honeywell.com
                              internet: tas@dasd.honeywell.com
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