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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bbba36730ac96f9a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Sandy McPherson Subject: Re: Gov't, non-DoD use of Ada Date: 1996/09/12 Message-ID: <3238382C.1E96@wgs.estec.esa.nl>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 180172310 references: <4vnlgn$mko@uuneo.neosoft.com> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: European Space Agency mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.ada x-mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; SunOS 5.4 sun4) Date: 1996-09-12T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Jon S Anthony wrote: > > > as much C as Ada used in ATC applications. It matters not at all that > > Thompson/CSF has been using and touting Ada. > > In US FAA ATC? Or world wide ATC? The evidence so far indicated > certainly seems to point that the use of just "ATC" here, is a very > parochial view. Anyone really know? > AFAIK Eurocontrol are adherents of Ada, they provide the Europe wide glue to stick national civilian ATC systems together. I haven't got a clue what the CAA in the UK and the other national authorities use. All military ATC systems that I know of in Europe are Ada, unless they are ancient. I guess the Asians mainly buy their stuff from the US. BTW. for those of us on the eastern side of the pond, why is the FAA up tight about Ada? Under normal circumstances why would anyone be bothered about a language, if they are buying a turnkey system on fixed price?. The Reliability, Availability, Maintenance and Safety (RAMS) analysis is the relevant vehicle for language choice. Most of the cock-ups I've come across are due to broken and/or incomplete requirements, or inadequate resources, not the language choice. Would I be correct in assuming this is the major reason for the FAA's problem? I did see one classic bungle which was caused by use of a required language, but the cause was a lack of a compiler for the chosen (due to political considerations) target. (Don't ask me why the target and/or language wasn't changed) In the position of a project manager on a tightly budgeted fixed price contract I would want to play safe and use my own tried and tested methods, languages, hardware etc.. Call me a Luddite if you will. but if I had 20 experts who had written safety critical software in Ada for 10 years, I would not want to re-train them at huge cost and against their will to do a system in C and conversely if I had a proven C development team I would not be keen going the other way. It would of course be a different matter if the customer was prepared to pay for all of this. -- Sandy McPherson MBCS CEng. tel: +31 71 565 4288 (w) ESTEC/WAS P.O. Box 299 NL-2200AG Noordwijk