Re: An observation of Ada (may offend)

[mcneills@landcare.cri.nz (Stephen McNeill)]

In article <fjm.63.000D29AE@ti.com> fjm@ti.com (Fred J. McCall) writes:

>>Air Traffic Control Systems, by country
>
>Pretty much government, no?

Speak for yourself...  So far as most countries outside the USA are concerned
(excuse the prejudice, it is not intended to offend) I suspect that it makes
no odds whether the whole thing is written in Ada, C++, FORTRAN or Visual
Basic (shudder) so long as the client who is responsible for the
transportation of the hundreds of thousands of (non-government) citizens is
confident that the contractor can do the job safely and efficiently.

As far as the New Zealand ATC is concerned I understand that this was the same
as that sold to a number of other agencies.  So, was it successful because it
was a government contractor enamoured of Ada (in New Zealand ! haw haw...), or
was it successful because it was a good product ?  I think we can chase out
tails on this argument.

>>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?

I think you miss the point.  Ada *is* conspicuous in its use in complex
systems, quite contrary to the ad hoc model of the uptake of other languages.
Is this good or bad ?  Well, since the software industry is so young, history
is being created as we speak (I mean, type...).  Come back in 20 years time
and we'll discuss it on comp.lang.ancient.ada.

Stephen McNeill
Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd