Ada NEWS -- Week Ending 14 Oct 1994

Ada NEWS -- Week Ending 14 Oct 1994

[Ada Information Clearinghouse]

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                 DISA DIRECTOR GUNG-HO FOR Ada!
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DATELINE:  October 14, 1994

     The newly appointed director of DISA is positive about the
future of Ada!  Lt. Gen. Albert Edmonds, director of the Defense
Information Systems Agency, stressed his continued support for Ada
and its software engineering capabilities at the DoD Database
Colloquium in San Diego, Calif.
     Edmonds said he plans to find some projects that lend
themselves to software engineering discipline and use them as Ada
test platforms.  "I don't know any other way to do it, but to get
on with it," he said.  
     He stressed that the projects are not intended to be "shoot-
outs," pitting Ada against the two other popular DoD languages, C
and C++.  Instead, he wants the projects to generate scientific
results detailing the benefits of Ada.  
     Edmonds added that the debates regarding the Ada mandate could
go on forever until the DoD produces scientific results that show
why Ada is a sound engineering approach to software development. 
He said he wants DISA to play a role in formulating these
scientific findings.

[Source:  Endoso, Joyce.  "Ada Mandate Alive, Kicking,"  Government
Computer News.  Vol.13, No.22, October 3, 1994.]


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                 Ada HELPS EUROPE CLEAR THE AIR
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DATELINE:  October 14, 1994

     The European Community is revamping its air-traffic safety
systems and Ada is playing a major role.  Eurocontrol, an
independent European organization which oversees air navigation
safety, is working to upgrade air-traffic navigation systems
throughout Europe.  

     At the Eurocontrol Experimental Center south of Paris,
developers have adopted the Ada programming language for two
projects:  RAMS (Re-organized ATC Mathematical Simulator) and the
Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS).  The two projects
combined consist of over 140,000 lines of Ada code.

     For the design phase, Eurocontrol used the Booch method and
Rational Rose.  By using object-oriented design approach,
developers were able to take full advantage of the many features
and benefits of the Ada language, including abstraction and
information hiding.  

     The primary reason for selecting an iterative, object-oriented
approach were maintainability, flexibility and reusability of the 
software over its lifetime, which Eurocontrol estimates to be from
12 to 15 years.


***  Look for the complete success story about Eurocontrol
available soon through the Ada Information Clearinghouse.  ***


[Source:  "Flying Object:  European Air Navigation System Gets
Overhaul," Rational Watch. Summer 1994.] 


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  INTEL AND TARTAN DEVELOPING Ada SYSTEM FOR INTEL ARCHITECTURE
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DATELINE:  October 14, 1994

     Intel Corp. and Tartan Inc. have teamed to support the
development of Ada programming tools for military-qualified Intel
architecture processors.  The cooperative effort will give project
teams using high-performance Intel architecture processors an
efficient developing and debugging environment for real-time
embedded Ada applications.  
     As part of the collaboration, Tartan will retarget its Ada
system to Intel architecture processors including the i486, DX,
DX2, IntelDX4 and Pentium.  Tartan Ada for Intel processors will be
available in the second quarter of 1995.
     The Tartan compiler will provide several Ada 9X features
including preliminary support for protected types and child
libraries, a full Ada 9X parser and some support for realtime annex
features including priority queuing.

[Source:  "Intel, Tartan Developing Ada System for Intel
Architecture,"  Military and Aerospace Electronics.  Vol. 5, No.
11.  October 1994.]

Re: Ada NEWS -- Week Ending 14 Oct 1994

[Val Kartchner]

In article <1994Oct19.175412.27378@sei.cmu.edu>,
Ada Information Clearinghouse <adanews@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu> wrote:
>*****************************************************************
>                 DISA DIRECTOR GUNG-HO FOR Ada!
>*****************************************************************
[....]
>     He stressed that the projects are not intended to be "shoot-
>outs," pitting Ada against the two other popular DoD languages, C
>and C++.  Instead, he wants the projects to generate scientific
>results detailing the benefits of Ada.  

Is it really sound to decide the outcome then create the datum to
support the conclusion of the study?  Sound or not, this is how
Ada studies have been (See "Ada and C++: Business Case Analysis")
and are still being conducted.

It reminds me of how another industry conducts studies.  Even
today the CEO's of that industry can pronounce authoritatively
(and with a straight face) that cigarettes do *not* cause cancer,
and we have the (internally generated) studies to prove it!

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