From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a839d8c4163b5054 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: bowmanc@ns1.sw-eng.falls-church.va.us (Carl Bowman) Subject: Re: What's ADA? Date: 1996/05/02 Message-ID: <4maead$qb2@ns1.sw-eng.falls-church.va.us>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 152591019 references: <31888e94.20333789@news.saipan.com> organization: None newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-05-02T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <31888e94.20333789@news.saipan.com> wrote: >Can anyone please explain to me what is ADA? Thanks. >.... ADA stands for the American Dental Association, or the Americans with Disabilities Act. :) (The following information may be of information only to Ada novices, but I invite anyone with more experience or information to correct any innacuracies.) Ada (notice only the initial letter is capitalized) is a programming language designed with emphasis on maintainability and portability. The name comes from Countess Ada Lovelace, considered to be the first programmer. The U.S. Department of Defense sponsored a study of the programming languages in use in the Services and Agencies and discovered that hundreds of diverse languages were in use in hundreds of programs. The possibility existed that proprietary programming languages were being invented to assure contractors' continuing participation in a project. This practice made maintainance of long-lived projects difficult, since new programmers often had to undergo extensive and expensive training on obscure, and often obsolete, languages. This resulted in huge expenses to the government, and ultimately, the taxpayer. The study concluded that existing languages could not meet the DoD's future requirements. A competition was formed to create a language meeting the DoD's requirements and the resulting language is Ada. Most DoD programming was (and _STILL_) is mandated to use Ada. Ada 95, the latest revision of the Ada programming language, has been gaining acceptance in the commercial and international market, especially in systems where zero defect tolerance is critical. The Ada Information Clearinghouse is an organization dedicated to providing information about the Ada programming language. (Sorry, we can't help the many callers we get for dental or disability information. :)) An exaustive collection of information on Ada is available on our Software Engineering host. Rather than make this post even longer by giving detailed access directions, I'll simply give you the url (http://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us) and the AdaIC phone number ((703) 681-2466). Please visit our site, or give me a call if you need more information. Carl Bowman Ada Information Clearinghouse .