Re: Modernising Ada

[billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 )]

From Judy.Bamberger@SEI.CMU.EDU:
> From the self-same article extolled by one of the other
> post-ers on this bboard, "Ada:  Past, Present, Future"
> from CACM, October 1984, an interview with Jean Ichbiah:
> 
>    "I see the global architecture of Ada as a cathedral,
>    with all the architectural lines interwoven in a 
>    harmonious manner.  I would not do it differently if 
>    I had to do it over again."

   Of course not, since this interview was taken in 1984.
   At that time, the ISO standard was only around one year
   old, and few if any validated compilers existed.  Hence,
   there had not yet been an opportunity to put Ada through
   its paces and find out where the problems were.  Nor had
   there been the benefit of the tremendous amount of research
   that has been done on object-oriented concepts since that time.

   What this quote tells us is that he was (quite justifiably)
   pleased with what he had done, in view of the information
   which was available at the time.  

   Considerably more information is available today.

> Also from the same article, in response to the question:
> "Would you expect that to be a relatively minor revision?",
> Ichbiah responds,
> 
>    "It is probably too early to say, but I tend to think
>    it would be a very minor revision."

   Yes, it was indeed too early to say.  

> And, just as a reminder, Jean Ichbiah is one of the Ada 9X
> Distinguished Reviewers.
> 
> One should always know one's history and the key players
> before making assertions about what could/should/might
> get accomplished ...

   This sounds like some sort of implication that Ichbiah has not 
   changed his position in the least during the five years in which 
   Ada has been given a much more comprehensive review, despite articles
   such as "Programming Atomic Actions in Ada" (Burns & Wellings, Ada 
   Letters, Sep/Oct '89); this article in particular demonstrates that 
   recoverable atomic actions cannot be performed in Ada due to the lack 
   of an asynchronous exception facility.  A number of other major
   shortfalls in the tasking area are also rather well-documented.

   I don't think that Jean Ichbiah would be very favorably impressed 
   by any sort of implication that he is somehow incapable of learning 
   from the results of his Ada 83 experience.  
  

   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu