Re: Future of Ada?

[Rush Kester <Rush.Kester@jhuapl.edu>]

news.oxy.com wrote:
> 
> Jim wrote in message <369c6b78.7488219@news.nodak.edu>...
> >I am just wondering what those who frequent this news group think
> >about the future of Ada.  I've heard a lot of talk that Ada is kind of
> >dying out and that not even the military is using it any more.  Any
> >comments would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > -Jim

I have developed software professionally in COBOL, Fortran, Assembler,
Pascal, and Ada.  Ada is by far the most powerful higher level
language.   It was easier to develop applications in Ada (without
resorting to assembler language helper routines).  It was also easier to
reuse Ada code.  While it not easy to develop reusable code in any
language, in Ada, the extra time spent specifing the interfaces and
parameterizing software for reuse, paid big dividends.  My research and
experience at the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA Goddard showed
that reuse (both without changes, and requiring modifications) increased
with Ada versus Fortran or C/C++.  See
http://sel.gsfc.nasa.gov/doc-st/docs.htm and in particular "Impact of
Ada and Object-Oriented Design in the Flight Dynamics Division at
NASA/GSFC," (http://sel.gsfc.nasa.gov/doc-st/docs/95-001.pdf).

Prior to Ada'95, Ada was handicapped by a "closed" view of application
development.  By that I mean, the presumption was that the entire
application would be developed in Ada & that Ada bindings would be
available to the operating system services.  Ada'95 made it much easier
to develop mixed language applications and to link to existing API
libraries (written in other languages).  Another handicap, prior to the
Ada'9x effort was the high cost of Ada compilers and tools.  Now there
are free compilers available (GNAT, and ObjectAda).  The recently ISO
approved Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS) makes developing
powerful and portable tools easy.

My only concern is not with the technology or infrastructure, but with
overcoming prejudices from Ada's origin's with U.S. Dept. of Defense and
attaining critical mass in broader markets.  Contray to what Jim has
heard, the U.S. Military still uses lots of programming languages,
including Ada (even though it's use is no longer "mandated.")

-- 
Rush Kester
Software System Engineer
at Johns Hopkins Univ./Applied Physics Lab.
voice: (240) 228-3030 (M-F 9am to 5pm EST)