Re: ESP

[Richard Riehle <rriehle@nunic.nu.edu>]

Since I am the culprit who wrote the article, I suppose it is my
responsibility to respond.  

On Mon, 9 Dec 1996, Ken Garlington wrote:

> Just got the December issue of Embedded Systems Programming. The
> feature article this month is a Richard Riehle article on Ada.
> I liked the article very much, but I have to ask:

  Glad you enjoye most of the article, Ken. I have been getting pretty
  good email from readers, including non-DoD readers who are interested
  in looking in to Ada.  

>   * Who's this PL/I programmer discussed in the article?

  You may recall that there was a contibutor to the thread on the
  Ariane incident who kept insisting that everything would have been
  just fine if the software had been programmed in PL/I instead of
  Ada.  And in those PL/I posts that contibutor made recurring 
  references to audit trails and printed reports.  As you and I know,
  embedded space systems rarely have any attached printers.

>   * Did there _have_ to be a statement on how Ada was inappropriate
>     for 8-bit controllers? That pretty much killed any desire on
>     my part to try to build one.

  I specifically mentioned the 8051 8-bit microcontroller. My comments
  should not be construed to mean that no eight-bit microcontroller
  is appropriate for Ada.  And I hope to be proven wrong by my belief
  that the 8051 is inappropriate for Ada.  If  I am wrong, it will be
  more to my delight than to my dismay.  

  When I first agreed to do the article, I also agreed to indicate where
  I thought Ada was unsuited as a language as well as well as where it
  was well-suited.  The article is weighted far more heavily on the
  virtues of Ada than on its liabilities.  I hope this one small 
  paragraph does not suggest abrogation of the use of Ada in those many
  applications where it is undeniably the best choice.  

  I welcome Ada enthusiasts to prove me wrong on the 8051, and will 
  publish an article on the Ada  8051 compiler as soon as it is ready.

>   * Why can "Ada" be spelled correctly everywhere but on the front
>     cover, where it's spelled "ADA"?

  Sigh. I too was somewhat disappointed at the way it appeared on the
  cover.  I wrote the text and approved the typset version of the
  article.  The cover was designed by an artist.  Artists like to
  see the symmetry of their work.  If ESP accepts another article for
  next year's Tri-Ada issue, I will remind them of the spelling format
  customarily used for Ada.

> It's not there now, but eventually the article should be at
> http://www.embedded.com, where back issues of ESP are kept.

  Yes, I believe it will be added eventually.

  Thanks for your comments, Ken.  I do try to write these articles so
  they will be informative and useful.  Sometimes I fall short of my
  own expectations -- disappoint myself -- but I am trying to do my
  part to enlighten the not-yet-Ada-aware software community regarding
  some of Ada's benefits.

  Richard Riehle
  richard@adaworks.com

  AdaWorks Software Engineering
  2555 Park Boulevard
  Suite 30
  Palo Alto, CA  94306
  (415) 328-1815
   FAX  328-1112