Re: Improving Ada's image - Was: 7E7 Flight Controls Electronics

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@comcast.net>]

Marius Amado Alves wrote:
>  > ... was that writing the kernel,
> 
>> given a good Ada compiler that targeted the bare metal was no big 
>> deal.  In fact we spent a lot more time (order of 10x) defining the 
>> kernel interface than in implementing it.
> 
> 
> Is this work shareable? Does it have a name? Does AdaOS know it?


Short answer: No.

The work was done on a classified project, and although I was able to 
bring some of the work out from behind the veil, the kernel was a 
definite no-no.  The fear is that if bugs are found, then the bad guys 
could exploit them in a combat situation.  In practice that is much more 
applicable to the radar portion of the software, and I can't imagine 
that today's potential enemies have the technical knowhow to exploit any 
weaknesses, but rules are rules.

However, you could check on PCTE.  That is a published standard, and it 
could save you lots of effort on building a useful Ada only OS.  (Of 
course, any OS is going to need a few instructions that are not 
available in any programming language directly.  But I think GNAT will 
let you write them as code-inserts.

-- 

                                           Robert I. Eachus

"The terrorists rejoice in the killing of the innocent, and have 
promised similar violence against Americans, against all free peoples, 
and against any Muslims who reject their ideology of murder. Their 
barbarism cannot be appeased, and their hatred cannot be satisfied. 
There's only one way to deal with terror: We must confront the enemy and 
stay on the offensive until these killers are defeated." -- George W. Bush