Re: How far with Ada??

Re: How far with Ada??

[Michael F Brenner]

Shaun Owen from adfa.oz.au asks How far with Ada??
    > Hi, I'm studying Elec Eng and we have been using Ada95 (on a unix server)
    > extensively for learning programming and computer science.
    > A subject I'm doing now is called Data Structures and it is all done in
    > Ada.... what does the future hold for Ada? ....
    > Appreciate incitive comments from anyone...

Well, after checkin my British dictionary to see if insightful is spelled
inciteful, and seeing that inciteful is the same in British and American,
here is an inciteful comment. Ten years from now Ada will still be better
at tasking, catching bugs at compile time, reducing life-cycle maintenance
costs, parameterizing objects by types, and integrating systems written in
multiple languages together than any other language, although its syntax
will have been modified to permit packages to be second class objects
(passable to other non-generic packages), and text_io will have been 
replaced with ASSOCIATIVE_URL_IO which reliably queries and updates any 
format of information anywhere using fast associative bulk memory. The
first Ada 2000X application will be a microphone into which you hum a
tune and it write out the score and identifies the tune. Twenty 
years from now with the invention of the 4 giga-neuron fully optical 
memory a new language will emerge to replace Ada. It will be called 
Ada 1X, with full mental control of cursors, voice dictation input, 
mental hyperlink selection, incremental or continuous consciousness
uploading onto the Net which will be renamed the Skein, and consciousness
downloading into robots. Yes, the forty years the human race spent
languishing in the mires of mouse clicking will finally be over, and
we will being progressing from the point where that hideous invention
took us off the track of our evolutionary objective.
Thirty years from now, the bandwidth resolution of video screens 
will be solved; we will finally be able to display two full-resolution
pieces of paper next to each other on the screen, which will be displayed
using living crystallographic projection which gains in resolution if
you speak lovingly to it, and Ada 2X will be the only language capable of
errorlesslly transmitting thought processes to these high-resolution
pages, implementing for the first time, effortless program-what-I-wish
not what-I-code forever changing computing science into the Art of computing.

Re: How far with Ada??

[Roy Grimm]

Shaun Owen wrote:
> 
> Hi, I'm studying Elec Eng and we have been using Ada95 (on a unix server)
> extensively for learning programming and computer science.
> A subject I'm doing now is called Data Structures and it is all done in
> Ada.

It's good to hear that your college is using a superior language for
teaching the concepts of software development. :)

> I was wondering, with a firm background in Ada, is it worth doing extra and
> learning more and more advanced techniques in Ada?.

Of course.  With the large need for software people in various
industries these days, any student who has studied advanced topics (such
as embedded systems design, tasking, real-time systems) will be that
much more attractive.  From a purely mercinary point of view, you'll
certainly see the salaries in your job offers increase if you can say
"I've done some tasking in my studies".

> The underlying question
> here is what does the future hold for Ada? I've seen a post in this news
> group
> about an aircraft sim manufacturer asking for advice on whether to use C++
> OR Ada95. Is it really a language for THIS day and age? Being a member of
> a defence force I understand it's use for this organisation, but what sort
> of future
> does it hold for Industry??
> 
> Appreciate incitive comments from anyone...
> 
> :-)

I would say that in certain industries, Ada is here for the long haul. 
I'm working in the avionics industry, where we have to pay particular
attention to every iota of every aspect of what we do or the FAA says
"no you can't put that computer on an airplane".  IMNSHO, Ada is a far
superior language for developing safety critical real-time embedded
systems than any other language, and it's going to stay that way for a
good long time.  As for other industries, it's hard to tell.  (mostly
because I don't have too much exposure to them.)

For a graduating engineering student who is interested in the software
development field, you should make yoursef familiar with the high level
topics of systems design.  I would study multitasking and real-time
software development.  To a certain extent, the ideas you will learn can
translate between languages (some better than others).  If you learn Ada
tasking, you can apply some of the fundamentals of that to other
multitasking systems.  The details will be different but the big picture
won't change much.  So long as you can understand the big picture, you
should be able to work out those details in (almost) any modern
language.

Ada will never go away.  There's already too much invested in it to have
it fade out.  Besides, it is a fantastic language for what it was
designed for and continues to do an excelent job.  I'd bet that it will
never dominate the industry like C/C++ has.  It just doesn't have enough
appeal for it to really take over.

I would also recommend that you study at least a little C/C++ and Java
and at least touch on their advanced topics too.  There are hundreds
upon thousands of companies that only do C/C++ programming.  To make
yourself appeal to the masses, learn the tools they use.

To sum it up:  Learn the advanced topics in Ada but learn other
languages too, to keep yourself diverse enough for employers to take an
interest in you.

-- 
Voicing my own opinion, not speaking as a company representative.

Roy A. Grimm
Rockwell Collins Avionics
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
ragrimm@cca.rockwell.no.spam.com
    (remove the no.spam. to get my real address)