Using Ada (or SPARK) in Ada-unaware environment

[Maciej Sobczak <no.spam@no.spam.com>]

Hi,

Imagine a control system (to be developed) which needs to interact with 
some devices. Those devices are supplied with C drivers and libraries.

What is the recommended practice for developing this control system in 
Ada (or SPARK)? I basically see two options for this:

1. Enjoy Ada's ability to interface with C libraries (pragma Import) and 
write everything in Ada.

2. Write separate programs in C (or C++) that will be responsible only 
for talking to the devices via their C access libraries. Write the main 
controller in Ada, as another separate program, and use some form of 
interprocess communication to have all those components talk.

The advantage of the second option is that the controller part can be 
easily tested in isolation or in a fake environment.

Are there some other options for this? What is the industry recommented 
practice?

Regards,

-- 
Maciej Sobczak : http://www.msobczak.com/
Programming    : http://www.msobczak.com/prog/