DII COE bars Ada -> Java compilation

["Marc A. Criley" <marc.a.criley@lmco.com>]

To Ada to JBC compiler vendors:

Section 8.2.3 (Miscellaneous) of the Defense Information Infrastructure
Common Operating Environment (DII COE) Integration & Run-Time
Specification (I&RTS) v4.0 states that "Developers shall not use
compilers designed to convert code developed in other languages (e.g.,
Ada, C++) to create Java byte-codes. This restriction is important
because such compilers may inadvertently bypass intended Java security
features."

Is this a legitimate concern?  I can kinda see how it might be, since
for instance Java forbids things like uninitialized objects (though I
vaguely recall some kind of exception to that), which Ada permits.  I
suspect I could probably come up with some other potential problems if I
dug into it.

If the Ada to JBC compilers do not introduce the security risks that the
I&RTS warns about, some educating is clearly called for.

Marc A. Criley
Software Architect
Lockheed Martin M&DS
marc.a.criley@lmco.com