Re: Is the "Ada mandate" being reconsidered?

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <emery-1007962018330001@line047.nwm.mindlink.net>,
David Emery <emery@grebyn.com> wrote:

>And, in my opinion, this insistence on inferior technology does NOT
>contribute to my confidence in either the FAA as an acqusition agency or
>the forthcoming FAA systems.

Anyone who's followed the aftermath of the ValuJet tragedy has got to
be raising serious questions about the competence of this agency to
do _anything_, especially given its "dual mandate" to both enforce
air safety _and_ promote the aviation industry. Decades ago we
separated the two roles in the nuclear area, and ought to do so here
too. 

>I'm now working on an ATC system (in Ada, of course), and I can't imagine
>someone choosing C or C++ for a system this large that has such a large
>safety component.

My understanding is that at least those Ada components that were fielded
or nearly so, are being retained.

>Can I "measure" this?  No, as this is the only ATC I've worked on.  But I've
>seen lots and lots of coding errors that were caught by the compiler in 
>Ada, that would, AT BEST, be caught during debugging in a C or C++ environment.
>This is not to say that Ada produces "safe, correct code".  Far from it.
>But it sure helps!

A couple of years ago, the Thomson/CSF VP for ATC systems wrote that
he found it unimaginable for his company or his competitors to _not_ use
Ada for ATC. Thomson/CSF was, at that time, cranking out ATC systems
for Europe, Asia, and Africa, seemingly like cookies with a cookie
cutter. In that same article, published unfortunately in a trade
periodical I have not been able to track down, he listed _very high_
reuse rates (> 80%) from one contry's system to the next.

From this article and other sources, I assembled a list of countries
whose ATC systems were - at least to a significant degree - in Ada.

Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
India
Ireland
Kenya
Netherlands
New Zealand
Pakistan
Scotland
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
Vietnam

Anyone in Europe have more up to date information?

Mike Feldman