From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,94862477e1c4efbb X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Richard Riehle Subject: Re: ESP Date: 1996/12/14 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 204155328 references: <32AC702C.2544@lmtas.lmco.com> to: Ken Garlington content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII organization: National University, San Diego mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-12-14T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: 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