Re: is Ada dying?

["Martin Dowie" <martin.dowie@nospam.baesystems.com>]

> I seem to remember a survey in Computer Contractor or something like
> that (may have been Computing, the BCS mag) that said Ada demand was
> up. Again, although demand may be up, it may just be because supply
> has dropped. Occam's still in demand in various places, but nobody
> wants to do it, so it remains in demand!

One thing that is never very well documented is that there are
City of London instituation who use Ada, I wonder if its popularity
is growing in that market? I understand that Reuter news agency also
use Ada, but I don't have any links to confirm this...


> >> Borehamwood:   Easams
> >
> >Most likely ALSTOM
>
> May be - I'm not sure what happened to Easams with the GEC-Marconi/BAe
> merger/takeover.

I think they are still around but if you don't want to work on 'bombs'
then ALSTOM use Ada for their railway systems, but again, big engineering
porjects, not 'bank-o-mat' stuff.



> Yes but who wants to spend 20 years on one project - certainly not me!
> I want to be in a position to move around when I get bored with what
> I'm currently doing, and Ada really isn't going to afford me that
> opportunity.

Well, after 7 years as a contractor, for various reasons (mostly family),
I'm now a permie again, but I do miss the jobbing around aspect from
time to time...

In that 7 years though I never had to take an enforced break between
contracts. There was always work and security was always done swiftly
enough. Once you are cleared it is fairly quick in coming through a
subsequent time, I found.



> I don't find security clearance a problem personally - mine's just
> been renewed (I believe they do a maximum 3 years for contractors and
> 10 years for permie staff), but apparently it expires after 6 months
> in a non-secure environment. It is then a fag to get it redone because

On this you have mean misinformed, the 'holder' of your clearance can
'forward' it for at least a year after leaving their employment (I've had
to do this once after working on non-secure stuff).