From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,f54972b30834b03d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "news.oxy.com" Subject: Re: Future of Ada? Date: 1999/01/18 Message-ID: <77vcta$jn2$1@remarQ.com> X-Deja-AN: 433984292 References: <369c6b78.7488219@news.nodak.edu> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@remarQ.com X-Trace: 916666090 HXI3FRZSOA57FC7F8C usenet80.supernews.com Organization: Posted via RemarQ, http://www.remarQ.com - Discussions start here! Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-01-18T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Jim wrote in message <369c6b78.7488219@news.nodak.edu>... >I am just wondering what those who frequent this news group think >about the future of Ada. I've heard a lot of talk that Ada is kind of >dying out and that not even the military is using it any more. Any >comments would be greatly appreciated. > > -Jim Hi from Russia. This reply is also well suited for other dicussion thread (Ada vs C++ vs Java) . As a matter of fact ADA recently has been adopted as NATO programming language standard (look at the end of the message ). Believe me such kind of decisions are not taken easily and just because some top level people like ADA more than other languages but because it is better suited for very complex real world and real time and embedded systems (as ADA was designed for that and proved it). I think that problem is that a lot of people do not try to look at the roots (or essence) of things and just follow the easy way of living (just doing what they have been taught and not trying to grasp new ideas, concepts etc.). For many people (including programmers) it is difficult to strain themselves. It is easy to relax and do what is easier to do and just to repeat what other people say. Now when good ADA95 compilers become available along with GUI tools (e.g. CLAW from RR Software) and useful ADA libraries as well as ADA binding (thick and thin) to other language libraries ADA95 is at the starting point for rapidly gaining popularity. I think that GNAT 3.11p from ACT is such a starting point (it should be soon publicly available). My opinion that right now the best choices is ADA95 and combination of ADA95 and Java when appropriate (ADA95 being used for core systems and Java code used for getting access to such core systems via Internet from any PC with browser). It proved to be that ADA95 and Java perfectly suits each other in this area as now it is possible to generate Java class code directly from ADA95 program and there exists bindings to Java for ADA95 (Averstar). This option probably will be included in some future releases of ADA95 compiler from ACT (according to ACT). Pretty soon there will be more ADA bindings and ADA libraries in addition to existing ones. My opinion that right now the best choices is ADA95 and combination of ADA95 and Java when appropriate (ADA95 being used for core system and Java code used for getting access to such core system via Internet from any PC with browser). It proved to be that ADA95 and Java perfectly suits each other in this area as now it is possible to generate Java class code directly from ADA95 program and there exists bindings to Java for ADA95 (from Averstar). This option should be included in some future releases of ADA95 compiler from ACT (according to ACT). Probably soon there will be more ADA bindings and ADA libraries in addition to existing ones. I wonder if anyone (professional ADA programmers and ADA software Companies) try to write ADA95 bindings (WindowsNT) to ACE real time communication subsystem as well as TAO implemented in C and C++ by Douglas C. Schmidt at Washington University in St. Louis http://siesta.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ ) or even implement it totally in ADA95. This will be invaluable investment to ADA community. I know that this is underway for Linux but I do not know anyone who is doing that for Windows NT. I consider this as a challenge to: Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies, Tucker Taft stt@averstar.com http://www.averstar.com/~stt/ Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK, Marin David Condic, Real Time & Embedded Systems, Propulsion Systems Analysis and other professionals in ADA. ------------------------------------ I am communication engineer that have been working in space industry for 13 years being involved in Mir Space Orbit Station project ,Souz projects etc. taking part in development of onboard communication and control systems as well as test equipment for that systems. Since beginning of 1993 I've been working as communication specialist in American Company (Occidental Oil an Gas www.oxy.com) in Russia (satellite communications, data communications [frame relay, TCP/IP networks ], Nortel Meridian1 switches, etc.). I think that this prove that I am not a person which is interested in promoting particular programming language. I am just a person who is interested in having such kind of programming language and associated set of tools that best suited for developing complex systems and my opinions stems from my experience. To say more though I am not a professional programmers but I have been doing programming in many languages (DEC PDP-11 Assembler, x86 Assembler, Pascal, Modula-2 (DEC PDP-11 implementation), TopSpeed Modula-2, Borland Delphi, Borland Paradox Object PAL (Accounting software to process Nortel Meridian 1 PBX CDR data). I have been experimenting with C, C++ (to understand what they are up to),Prolog, Modula-3. I was studying OOP paradigms using C++ when ADA95 was not available. One of the important things in software developing and maintenance is readability of the code. ADA95 is the best in this matter. Anyone who knows English can read and understand Ada code and this is quite the opposite to C and C++ no matter what C and C++ programmers claim. This means that any new person can easily be included in development/maintenance team and can easily understand what have been done so far. For long term projects this is extremely important. Also if it is necessary to deal with something that should be more efficient (to programmer's view) the best choice is to use small subprograms and function written in assembler and call them from ADA code. Assembler is not more difficult to read than C and C++ let alone code efficiency. Vladimir Olensky (Vladimir_Olensky@oxy.com) Telecommunication specialist, Occidental C.I.S. Services, Inc. ( www.oxy.com ). Russia, Moscow. **************************************************************************** ********************* STANAG 3912 (Edition 3) NAVY/ARMY/AIR NATO STANDARDIZATION AGREEMENT (STANAG) Ada - REAL-TIME HIGH ORDER COMPUTER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE Related Documents: ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A ISO/IEC 8652:1995(E) AIM1. The aim of this agreement is to achieve easier development, improved maintenance and a decrease in life cycle costs of avionic systems, by using a standardized real-time, high order, computer programming language.AGREEMENT 2. Participating nations agree: a. To use the high order programming language Ada 95 for programming avionics software in future avionics acquisitions. Ada 95 is defined by ISO/IEC 8652:1995(E). Participants may continue to use Ada 83 as defined by ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A for systems already in production or in service where the cost to migrate to Ada 95 is prohibitive. b. That future avionics systems will employ this standard when consistent with system requirements and constraints as determined through an acceptable systems engineering process.IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AGREEMENT 3. This STANAG is implemented when a nation has issued instructions that applications will be in accordance with thisagreement. Implementing countries currently are:BE, CA, FR, GE, NL, NO, TU, UK Promulgated on 11 September 1997