Re: Is the "Ada mandate" being reconsidered?

[Michael Levasseur <levass@gdesystems.com>]

Theodore E. Dennison wrote:

> I have recently been directly involved in a DoD effort using large
> amounts of COTS hardware and software, and interfacing Ada to it has
> literally been the LEAST of our problems. Writing Ada bindings, even
> high level ones, is really not all that difficult for an experienced
> Ada developer. There are even some tools available to do it for you.
> Getting COTS hardware/software combinations that will work
> together, now THAT has been a nightmare!

Have you been building Ada bindings to C++? I've built plenty of
binding to C source code, i.e. VxWorks. I don't know of a way to
bind to C++ objects or C++ methods.

> I have seen neither of these. I suppose it depends on your
> definition of "credible". The major players, Alsys and Rational seem
> to be getting stonger than ever. And the last few months have seen
> the emergence of ACT.

Well one of the companies you sight "Alsys" no longer exists. They 
are part of "Telesoft"... Oh no now both "Alsys" and "Telesoft" no longer
exist they're "Thomson". Well there's "Verdix" oh wait that's part of
"Rational". From conversations with "Rational" what they're working
on is their C++ compiler. My information comes from the list of
validated compilers. It is clear that the number of Ada compiler
venders have been shrinking. There aren't alot of companies entering
the Ada compiler market. There is also some fallout from the TI
aquisition of Tartan. I'm fairly sure that the product line of
Tartan will be shrank.

> In any event, you can now get an Ada compile for FREE.

Yes, but do you know of any major DoD projects that are be developed
using GNAT? When you buy a FREE compiler you get what you pay for.


Remember what the "Ada Mandate" was created to do. It was created to
reduce the DoD software maintanence of over 200 langauges down to
just one. The commercial world has now paired the major languages
down to a handfull. It is now time to drop the Ada Mandate! If
Ada is as strong as everyone says, clearly it will thrive and survive.
I personnally believe that if that "Ada Mandate" was removed,
Ada would take it's place in history like Jovial, Pascal, and Atlas...

These are just my humble opinion from an Ada Programmer, yes I'm
an Ada programmer!!!