Endian and Ada

[mporcell@flute.aix.calpoly.edu (Michael Anthony Porcelli)]

I'm taking a computer architecture class and my eyes have been opened to the
incredible lack of progress that computer science has made in the area of
architecture-independant programming.  One of the main problems that my
professor likes to point out the endian problem and the fact that so much
software is *not* endian-independant (due mainly to the widespread use of C
and C++).  However, he is not familiar enough with Ada (nor am I) to know if
Ada is endian-independant.  I'm almost positive that it's *possible* to make
endian-dependant code using unchecked programming (necessary for systems
writing).  I was wondering, however, if the day-to-day Ada software out
there is written endian-independant (i.e. the language facilities used in
most day-to-day programming don't depend on whether your architecture is
"big" endian or "little" endian.)

Thanks,

-Mike