Re: "C" vrs ADA

[jru@etn-rad.UUCP (John Unekis)]

In article <1065@vu-vlsi.UUCP> harman@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Glen Harman) writes:
>
>Hello, sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled news articles, but I
>didn't know where else to turn...
>
>I am a senior EE student whose current career goal is to work in an aerospace
>and/or military research field.  To better my chances, I would like to 
>supplement my Fortran skills with another language.  "C" has been recommended
>to me many times, and I was just about to buy a manual when I started hearing 
>about ADA.
>
>I have heard that is is the DoD language, but what does that mean?  Are all 
>aerospace and military contractors required to use it?  Is it suggested learningfor the major corporate engineers?  Is it filtering down into the public 
>engineering sectors?  Is it too specialized to be applied elsewhere if I didn't
>get the desired job?
>

	  The ada language is far more than just a language. Ada includes
	  standards for editors,compilers, and run-time symbolic debuggers.

	  The C language evolved at AT&T in the process of developing the
	  UNIX operating system. There were, beleive it or not, an A language
	  and a B language that preceded it. Finally with the C language the
	  original developer of the UNIX operating system (which was done on
	  a PDP-7 microcomputer) felt that he had what he wanted. It was a
	  moderately structured language , with a syntax that was similar
	  to the UNIX c shell (or vice versa). As UNIX gained wide acceptance
	  the C language became more popular. It has the advantage over 
	  FORTRAN of having structured variable types, but without the 
	  overly elaborate type checking done by a language like PASCAL.
	  It does share with Pascal the fact that each was developed by a
	  single individual and thus represents that individuals prejudices
	  in computer languages. C is now widely available outside the 
	  UNIX community and is a defacto standard with many companies. 
	  It is often the case in military/aerospace procurements that in
	  order to generalize the request for computer hardware so as not
	  to sole source a single vendor the government will ask for UNIX
	  because it is the only operating system that can be had on a 
	  non-proprietary basis on a variety of computer hardware. UNIX of
	  course brings C right along with it.

	  Because UNIX does not handle real-time applications (such as
	  interrupt handling) very well, and because there was no non-
	  proprietary standard for real-time operating systems, the 
	  government(DOD) wanted to develop such a standard. Also, the DOD
	  had a problem with each branch of the service having its own
	  non-compatible languages for software development(COBOL,JOVIAL,
	  CMS-II,FORTRAN,C,etc.). It has been decided that the DOD will 
	  develop a standard computer language that will include standards
	  for editors, compilers, run-time debuggers, and even operating
	  system functions for real-time processing. This standard was 
	  named ADA, (the name of the mistress of Charles Babbage, who 
	  invented a punched card driven loom, considered to be the first
	  computer, she was rumored to be the first person to ever write
	  a program on punched cards- why her name is appropriate for a
	  real-time language is a mystery). If you are interested in the
	  military/aerospace field then ADA is definitely the language to
	  learn. Be aware that it is a very complex language (Carnegie
	  Mellon University is rumored to have required it for all sophomores-
	  which resulted in flunking out half their sophomore class) and
	  that to learn it properly you must find a DOD certified 
	  implementation which includes the editors, compilers, and debuggers
	  as well. The DOD plans eventually to require ALL software to be done
	  in ADA, but they realize that there is enormous inertia against it.
	  Thousands of programmers must be retrained, and millions of lines
	  of code converted. Don't expect to see ADA used very widely outside
	  of the DOD environment. It will fail for the same reason that
	  Pascal, Modula2, C, PL1, and others have failed - IBM is the 
	  dominant force in the commercial market(~75 percent of all 
	  commercial installations) and COBOL dominates the IBM installed
	  base (~90 percent of IBM applications are in COBOL). As long as
	  computers remain basically Von Neuman processors, no language is
	  going to offer any advantages in the real world to a language
	  like COBOL. No business is going to go through the 3 to 5 years
	  effort of retraining and converting of existing code just to
	  satisfy the dogmatic prejudices of computer-science weenies.

	  The DOD is perfectly capable, however, of making contractors like
	  Boeing, Lockheed, TRW, Eaton,etc. jump through the ADA hoop just
	  by refusing to accept bids which do not include ADA. Therefore if
	  you want a career in military/aerospace, go for ADA.


---------------------------------------------------------------
ihnp4!wlbr!etn-rad!jru   - The opinions above were mine when I
thought of them, by tomorrow they may belong to someone else.