Re: naval systems

["tony gair" <tonygair@nespamtome.btinternet.com>]

>
> Nonsense. Boeing _chose_ to use Ada for it's development of the 777,
> which had extremely tight schedules and where contracts were
> risk-sharing, not cost-plus. The FAA couldn't have cared less what
> language they used, so they gained nothing there, but Boeing saw enough
> gains in the language to pursue it for its own sake.
>

I was present on the project  testing phase of the 777 ada fly by wire
system, and my understanding of Boeings choice for Ada was the following

1) The systems functions and procedures needed testing at a component level,
Most Ada programmers I've met have experience of rigourous testing.

2) The contract for the fly by wire system was completed by Marconi Avionics
in Elstree, UK, who are mainly Ada programmers and normally do Big Guns
projects. This probably decided the project language. The ready availability
of design, and test tools used on Big Guns projects was possibly also a
deciding factor.

There were initially three different languages that were going to be used
for the project, but this idea was scrapped in favour of exclusively using
Ada.

Incidently the growling red faced project testing manager was rumoured to
whilst in work time  regularly partake in the abuse of certain columbian
exports.

Would you fly on this aircraft?