Re: Ada95 vs Eiffel ?

[nospam@thanks.com.au (Don Harrison)]

Luis,

My recent background is realtime software engineering in Ada (8 years 
simulators and combat systems) although my "favourite" language is Eiffel.

:I'm planning to develop a critical 
:application related with real time
:visualization of 3D medical data.

...

:The application could be run
:on QNX or LYNX real time operating
:systems (with an inocuous version
:for windows NT...), and will 
:intensively use calls to OpenGL.
:
:I'm analyzing the alternatives of
:good languages for this kind of 
:tasks. By now, the finalist are
:Ada and Eiffel,:
:
:
:Eiffel :because its natural support
:        of "design by contract".
:
:
:Ada95  : because it has a long tradition
:         in critical systems developments.

I would say the strength of Ada is it's orientation towards realtime systems 
(slightly different).

:Can anybody give me some advices
:about this choice ?

Although I like Eiffel very much, I would choose Ada (but use it in an 
Eiffel-esque way), purely on pragmatic grounds. Ada is specifically geared 
towards realtime applications whereas no Eiffel vendor has supported the 
realtime domain with any credibility. Eiffel implementations lack the 
requisite support in terms of low-level and realtime libraries.

An external interface to C (basically what Eiffel offers) is no substitute 
for sophisticated, built-in low-level and realtime support.

:PD. as a secondary point, 
:which of this languages 
:provides a more "secure" support
:for graphical user interfaces ?
:(like xforms, gtk, qt ...)

Don't know the answer to that.


Don (Harrison).   donh at syd.csa.com.au
Eiffel - Software engineering with class