Re: Gov't, non-DoD use of Ada

[Ron Thompson <thompsor@admin.tc.faa.gov>]

gwinn@res.ray.com (Joe Gwinn) wrote:
>The FAA no longer permits Ada on new procurements, subsequent to the AAS
>debacle.  It isn't often one gets to waste $6 billion.  Only ANSI C and
>C++ are permitted, except where existing systems are being modified. 
>There was a newsgroup debate on the wisdom of this decision, but the FAA
>has in fact backed away from Ada.
>
>Joe Gwinn
>
>

All government agencies have public affairs offices that will
happily provide all the factual information available to the
public, which is nearly everything most of us do. You own it.
While it can be frustrating and difficult to navigate the
system(s) in order to get that info, it is there. While that
info may not support a position or agree with an assertion,
it is there. 

1. The FAA will "permit" whatever language the approved system
design indicates.

2. "AAS debacle" would have happened even if it was done in 
the most popular, most approved by newsgroups, most Win95
compliant, Java friendly, Hot Cool Web Browsing lanugage in
the entire free global village. "AAS debacle" had little to
none to do with the language. Most debacles don't. 

3. We may have been born on a weekend, but not last weekend.
If you limit development to C and C++, and you are the govt,
you will be sued.

4. While the waiver system has somewhat waivered, your overall
writing indicates that the FAA would immediately reject
anything that came in that wasn't c, c++. It implies that the
FAA would deny any system concept written in Ada. Man, can
you imagine the lawsuits?

rct, an Ada programmer

The opinions above are mine and mine alone.