Re: long term viability of Ada

[Shayne Flint <shayne@ainslie.com.au>]

Alan Brain wrote:
> 
> Greg A Barnett wrote:
> >
> >  They
> > have one argument I can't refute and I'm looking for help.  They claim
> > that since the DoD is abandoning Ada (their words, not mine) and since
> > there is very little commercial use of Ada in the US (again their
> > words), Ada is a dead language that won't be around in 5-10 years. Does
> > anyone have a crystal ball that sees 5-10 years in the future?  What are
> > the projections for market share, number of projects written in Ada,
> > dollar value of Ada contracts, etc.?
> >
> > BTW, I don't expect this will change their minds, they've made their
> > decision and facts would just confuse the issue.  Sigh!  I could use
> > some encouragment.
> 
> 1. US DoD is not 'abandoning' Ada, though it's not exactly being
> terribly encouraging it either. See AIA report. I think it's on HBAP.
> 2. Avionics : Ada is being used increasingly in aviation, railways etc.
> There is no chance whatsoever that it will be abandoned in 5 years, and
> will
> still be around in 30 years, as will COBOL I might add.
> 3. Very little commercial use in the US - this may be true. Europe and
> Japan, and for that matter Australia, is another matter.
> 4. As for C++... which C++? There are many different dielects of it,
> and, like K&R C, in 5-10 years any particular compiler is likely to be
> rendered obsolete by an ANSI standardisation, if they ever get around to
> it.
> 
> But as for documents, hard evidence.... please tell me when you get it,
> as I'd like to see it myself.
> 

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu recently mailed a list of some commercial projects
using Ada.
The list included the Air traffic control systems of more than 25
countries, most
Boeing aircraft (747, 767, 777 etc), most Airbus aircraft, many railway
systems etc.
These kinds of systems will be alive and well for more than ten years. 

The main point however, is that any C/C++ compiler you choose 
today will not be around in 5-10 years. Ada95 is standardised and will
be 
stable for a long while. Contrary or popular belief, Ada compilers are
cheap, readily
available, and of high quality.

My view is that the more people struggle with C++ etc. the better off
we Ada users are. We will continue to produce better software more
quickly. Our 
software will continue to be portable across platforms for many years to
come, and 
with products such as AppletMagic (from Intermetrics) and ObjectAda
(from Thomson 
Software Products) - we can ride the Java bandwagon using an ISO
standard language
and our existing body of Ada code (and when the wheels fall off the
bandwagon, we
will still have our Ada code). The C/C++/Java people will be chopping
and changing,
arguing about language features, inventing new languages and dialects,
training and 
retraining, and maintaining systems written in long forgotten dialects
of languages 
for years to come.

We will still be using ISO Ada.

Why would you use anything else but Ada? It's beyond me, but I don't
really care 
because I know I have a commercial advantage in using Ada.

--------------------------------------------------------------
-- Shayne Flint                          Promoting Ada as the
-- Ainslie Software Pty Limited          programming language
-- Australia                             for serious software
--------------------------------------------------------------