Service Academies

Service Academies

[Robert B. Love]

Do I remember someone saying that the USAF is teaching cadets
Ada?  I've been on the phone today with recruiters talking
about Colorado Springs.  The woman told me she had no call
for Ada programmers but C++/GUI was hot and had been growing.
This firm dealt only with aerospace, not the telcom companies.

So my actual questions are:

a) Is Ada being taught to Air Force cadets?

b) Why, if right outside their gates it isn't being
   used?

Actually, I do know of a _small_ number of Ada projects in the
Springs but the number seems to be dwindling fast.  Does the
Air Force not use "war fighting" software?


----------------------------------------------------------------
 Bob Love                                   MIME & NeXT Mail OK
 rlove@neosoft.com                            PGP key available
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Re: Service Academies

[Ken Garlington]

Robert B. Love wrote:
> 
> Do I remember someone saying that the USAF is teaching cadets
> Ada?  I've been on the phone today with recruiters talking
> about Colorado Springs.  The woman told me she had no call
> for Ada programmers but C++/GUI was hot and had been growing.
> This firm dealt only with aerospace, not the telcom companies.
> 
> So my actual questions are:
> 
> a) Is Ada being taught to Air Force cadets?
> 
> b) Why, if right outside their gates it isn't being
>    used?
> 
> Actually, I do know of a _small_ number of Ada projects in the
> Springs but the number seems to be dwindling fast.  Does the
> Air Force not use "war fighting" software?

I'm not sure I see the connection. Although the Air Force Academy
is in Colorado Springs, I don't think there's a lot of DoD
software development or acquisition going on there. Such work
is usually done by contractors, or at locations such as Wright-Patterson
AFB in Dayton, OH, or Hill AFB near Salt Lake City. Certainly,
there's a substantial amount of Ada being developed for the
USAF, over 1 million lines of code on at least one project with
which I'm familiar. One good place to visit on the Web is the
USAF Software Technology Service Center at

http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil

although I wasn't able to connect to them a few minutes ago...

> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>  Bob Love                                   MIME & NeXT Mail OK
>  rlove@neosoft.com                            PGP key available
> ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Service Academies

[Dennis W. Butler]

Robert B. Love wrote:
> 
> Do I remember someone saying that the USAF is teaching cadets
> Ada?  I've been on the phone today with recruiters talking
> about Colorado Springs.  The woman told me she had no call
> for Ada programmers but C++/GUI was hot and had been growing.
> This firm dealt only with aerospace, not the telcom companies.
> 
> So my actual questions are:
> 
> a) Is Ada being taught to Air Force cadets?
> 
> b) Why, if right outside their gates it isn't being
>    used?

Universities are not vocational-technical schools. They (hopefully)
teach principles and concepts using the best methods available. Since
Ada is a modern programming language with direct support of sound
software engineering principles, many Universities use it as an
instructional language. After graduation, students will apply the
principles and concepts they've learned in their professional
environment. If that environment is a decade or so behind (in
technological terms), then the graduates will have been equipped with
the most modern methods so they can cope with such backwardness.

My expectation is that, in the next few years, students who have been
exposed to a better way in school will rise to decision-making positions
in the industry and implement systems with modern methods.

As an aside, it seems to me that Mr. Love's posting begs the questions:
Should Universities follow the industry or lead it?

Dennis Butler
Computer Science Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Re: Service Academies

[david scott gibson]

In article <5hpjgp$sb@uuneo.neosoft.com>,
Robert B. Love  <rlove@neosoft.com> wrote:
>So my actual questions are:
>
>a) Is Ada being taught to Air Force cadets?

Yes.  The core curriculum required for all USAFA cadets includes a one
semester course in which the cadets use Ada.  I've been away from
USAFA for a while, but I believe it's still the case that other
courses offered by the Computer Science Department and other
engineering departments also use Ada.  Some upper-level CS courses
uses other languages as appropriate for the subject matter.

>b) Why, if right outside their gates it isn't being used?
>Actually, I do know of a _small_ number of Ada projects in the
>Springs but the number seems to be dwindling fast.  Does the
>Air Force not use "war fighting" software?

While the high-tech sector is growing in Colorado Springs, I do not
believe that much DoD software is developed there - although quite a
bit is used at local bases.

Dave
--
David S. Gibson, Major, USAF
dgibson@cis.ohio-state.edu