Re: The future of Ada

["Michael Garrett" <michaelgarrett@csi.com>]

Here's my impression: ( Actually its an opinion )

>Ten months into the project, the project leader announced
>very abruptly that Ada would be scrapped, C++ would be used,
>and there would be a six month slip in the project to permit
>training in C++ and rewriting the  completed Ada code.  His
>reason - "There may not be any Ada programmers to do
>maintenance several years from now, but we will always be
>able to get C++ programmers."
( He did not say software engineers )



This person is frustrated. He / She obviously thinks that Ada is delaying
the project probably due to the upfront design that is required in Ada.
 actually required in any language but I'll get to that.. ) I am just
learning Ada, and it is frustrating sometimes to realize that I can not just
sit down and code something, even to try it out. Leaning Ada has taught me
alot about how little I know about software engineering.  Having weak type
checking and very little type support in a language, fosters the code it now
fix it in validation mentality. ( It sounds like I'm condeming some
language, but I'm not. If the process works, the software will most likely
work, And be delivered on schedule ).

As a manager of Medical Device Developement, I would not want it any other
way. But in most companies that lack large scale or safety critical software
development experience, the percieved pain of not seeing some cluged up
prototype ( which will probably end up in the
system ) is enough to make this type of rash decision happen. What needs to
be addressed is not the programming language. The language is a small tool
that is used in a portion of the development process. It is used to execute
the implementation of a design.
Hopefully, the language tools i.e. compiler will catch as many problems as
possible before the code is released.

My suggestion, is to analyze the design process itself. If this project was
moving at record breaking speed, this person would not be frustrated, he /
she would be putting out press releases on the use of Ada, with his / her
smiling face on the cover shot.

>I am obviously frustrated.  How can I continue to promote
>the use of Ada when the numbers mentioned in the first two
>paragraphs above indicate a lack of growth in Ada compared
>to the other languages?  Any thoughts, either positive or
>negative, will be appreciated.


The numbers in this case do not signify much. This person supported you when
you first chose Ada. Did he / she go through the training courses ? Maybe
this person knows C and the Ada Learning curve is too steep while C++ looks
like C and is more accessible.

Ada will be around for a while, along with the tools. Any good software
engineer can learn and use Ada.

Process, Process, Process Process.................Repeat After
Me...................

If none of this is true, you are the victim of a political move, in order to
achieve notoriety and a promotion. I'm frustrated too.....

Michael C. Garrett
Vice President of Research and Development
Medical Research Laboratories
www.mrlinc.com











>
>Gordon Dodrill
>Sandia National Laboratories - Albuquerque, New Mexico