Re: An observation of Ada (may offend)

[fjm@ti.com (Fred J. McCall)]

In article <3kcf82$ln3@felix.seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>In article <VLADIMIR.95Mar13204932@speedy.intrepid.com>,
>Vladimir Vukicevic <vladimir@speedy.intrepid.com> wrote:

>>Speaking of why people think Ada is not a good language... it'd be nice
>>if someone collected the many myths about Ada, and collected them all
>>together for distribution to the unbelievers. :-)  This would simplify
>>telling people about Ada, especially if all they've heard was that it's
>>a "big ugly ancient language used by the government", or that it's too
>>'huge' to be worth doing anything with.

>Here's a contribution:

>MYTH: "Ada is used only by the U.S. Department of Defense"

>RESPONSE: Here's a list I'm just getting started with, of application
>  domains and lists of projects in which Ada is present in at least
>  substantial amounts of code, if not exclusively. 

I'm curious; how many of the things on the list are not government related or 
regulated?  Is it significantly easier, for example, to get the government to 
sign off on aircraft software in part because it happens to be written in Ada 
(irrespective of the actual implementation or of the merits of the language)?  
That and the few banking applications would seem to me to be the only ones on 
your list not run by governments.

Non-myth -- virtually all Ada software is produced for governmetn agencies?

> That a project is
>  not _all_ Ada is a commentary on our increasingly mature view of
>  reuse and mixed-language programming. 

Now if only we could convince the United States Congress of that.

>Air Traffic Control Systems, by country

Pretty much government, no?

>Communication and Navigational Satellites

Again, pretty much government, no?

>Railway Transportation

Again?

>Television Industry

>Canal+ (French pay-per-view TV, remote cable box control software)

I have no idea of the status of the French television industry.  Government 
run or no?