10 Commandments for Ada9X

[mathis@CTC.CONTEL.COM (Bob Mathis x4232)]

This message contains some ideas for a "Ten Commandments" for the
requirements and revision of Ada. I have brought together some
ideas that I think are related and given them titles. If this
list doesn't provoke some discussion, then some net nodes must be
inoperative.

1. PUBLIC -- involve public in all phases of revision and
standardization; be responsive to various special interest
communities; continue focus on primary customers; coordinate with
Ada-related professional groups

2. CONSERVATIVE -- minimum change with maximum positive impact;
maximum compatibility with current programs and compilers;
generally conservative; revision not redesign

3. ISO -- revision of text to incorporate approved AIs; use of
large character set in strings and literals; adapt for better fit
with other ISO standards and guidelines

4. OOP -- increased support for object-oriented program
development paradigm while remaining consistent with Ada's
support for other paradigms and Ada's existing features
addressing similar goals

5. REAL-TIME -- improved suitability for and predictability of
real-time performance (dynamic priorities, distributed time-outs,
aborts, asynchronous communication, etc.); require more
documentation of run-time performance in Appendix F

6. RELIABLE -- features for improving reliability of applications
programs; maximize the possibilities for static analysis of
program correctness

7. INTERFACES -- improved facilities for interfacing to external
systems (GKS, CCIS, X, SQL, etc.); secondary and supplemental
standards for use with commercial data processing; adaptation to
multi-lingual environments

8. SIMPLIFY/UNIFY -- improve overall language consistency; remove
unnecessary limits and "silly" requirements in the current
language; reduce implementation freedom/inconsistency (clarify
and specify in RM); increase language orthogonality; increase
language integration; improve the similarity between user defined
and predefined constructs (types, exceptions, etc.); improve Ada
from the perspective of "least surprise"

9. STRICT CONFORMANCE -- continued strict enforcement of no
subsets/no supersets; but encourage compiler writers and tool
developers to experiment with new ideas for supporting program
development

10. KEEP IT ADA -- keep strong typing, encapsulation, separate
compilation, information hiding, static binding, packages, tasks,
rendezvous, generics, and other aspects of current Ada approach