Re: Ada used in General Aviation (GA) applications?

[Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com>]

Bernd Specht wrote:
> 
> 1. We work on 8051 and HC11, there is _no_ reason to switch to other 
> processors (especially the programming language is no reason).
> 
> 2. For professional development, it's not enough to have a compiler. You 
> need a complete tool-chain (e.g. configurator, debugger ...)
> 
Amen! I've said this before, but it seems to get dismissed. But then, so 
does Ada in the embedded world. People buy a whole development kit and 
that isn't cheap to build. It is often basically given away when you buy 
a development board because it is the hope of the vendor to sell you 
lots of boards - not lots of compilers. So if Ada wants to play in that 
arena, it needs someone to go out and develop a superior board-level 
product that just happens to have an Ada compiler targeting it.


> 
> No, thats wrong. Would you go to GM and tell them: "Please build me a car 
> whith five wheels,60 inch wheels, ..."? NO, you go to your local dealer, see 
> what he has and then buy it or leave it.
> 
> 
You could ask, but the answer is "No - but we'll let you pay to develop 
it and you can wait a year to get it." You're absolutely right on this 
score. *NOBODY* is going to pay a vendor and wait for the privilege of 
using Ada. They're going to select their board/chip and they're going to 
  use whatever compilers/development environments are available for that 
hardware. If Ada isn't sitting on the shelf waiting to be bought, then 
Ada doesn't play.

Its a tough nut to crack and I think Ada would be better off trying to 
target something else that might end up spilling over into the embedded 
world rather than try a direct assault.

MDC



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