Re: Anybody in US using ADA ?

["Marin David Condic" <mcondic.auntie.spam@acm.org>]

I believe Pratt & Whitney is still using Ada for engine controls. At least
some of them. As one who is working on the engines for the JSF, I can tell
you that those controls are still in Ada - for the time being. (Don't know
what will happen when they go into full scale development.)

Its a shame to see that many in the DoD arena are abandoning Ada because
"Everybody else is using C++". In this area, Ada does not tend to suffer so
much from lack of large libraries or other development enhancers since
hardware is often custom built and/or software development is not the long
pole in the tent. Here Ada's faster development time and reduced defect
characteristics can truly stand out. I'm afraid I don't know how to overcome
the "follow the crowd" mentality here. Ada has the technical edge and so
long as compilers/tools are available for the target (at a reasonable cost)
there isn't a whole lot of business/financial edge to something else (in
many cases at least). None of that tends to persuade the programmers or
their managers that they shouldn't try to be like everyone else. The only
real hope is for Ada to find its way into a significant commercial niche so
that there is a large body of "everyone else" out there to be followed.

Its hard to blame the programmers or the managers. Programmers want to have
skills that can get them a job somewhere else if Congress pulls the plug on
what they're doing - or simply want to use what they are familiar with
already. Managers don't want to be perceived as taking unnecessary risks
and - as the saying used to be - "Nobody ever got fired for picking IBM".
Similarly, management won't be fired for using tools that are "industry
standard". Nobody is going to change that position unless Ada is adopted for
some reasonably wide sector of the software market.

MDC
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Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jast.mil/

Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g

    "I'd trade it all for just a little more"
        --  Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10]
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John R. Strohm <strohm@airmail.net> wrote in message
news:C900921B7A3FDDD4.5FD752FF5D42F9AF.349D2214D482463F@lp.airnews.net...
> I *THINK* that Lockheed-Martin Fort Worth is using Ada for F-22 and F-16.
> You might try looking at their web sight (http://www.lmco.com) and seeing
> what they are looking to hire.  (Most of their effort appears to be
trawling
> for resumes for  Joint Strike Fighter, which is in C++.
>