From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.5 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_05 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 15 Jan 92 17:16:14 GMT From: network.ucsd.edu!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!lynx!spectre.unm.edu!john @nosc.mil (John Prentice) Subject: Re: Ada on supercomputers (Was: Re: federal requirements to use ada) Message-ID: List-Id: In article <1992Jan15.154220.17182@freedom.msfc.nasa.gov> robichau@lambda.msfc. nasa.gov writes: >In john@spectre.unm.edu (John Prentice) writes: > > >Speaking for the numerically intensive government world however, I would > >have to say that Ada is a non-starter. I know of no major numerical codes > >being written in Ada and there is a virtual dirth of compilers for any > >of the supercomputers (are there ANY?). Some lip service is paid to these > >"mandates", but the only people I know doing so are officials who are > >at best distantly connected to the real world of computing. None of this > >is a statement about the pros or cons of Ada, it is just an observation > >of the current state of numerical computing. I don't see this changing > >in the future. > > Cray has a rather nice compiler for their supermachines; release 2.0 does > some automatic vectorization, and my understanding is that its runtime > performance is quite close to their C and FORTRAN compilers. > > I believe that Concurrent and Convex also have available Ada compilers for > their machines, and I vaguely recall that Amoco and Exxon were investing > heavily in doing some numerics work on Convex machines in Ada. > > Of course, there aren't many tools of any type available for machines with > such a small installed base. > I don't wish to suggest (and didn't in my original post) that Ada is not being used at *all* in the numerically intensive world, simply that it is not *significantly* used and I don't think ever will be. I was not aware of the supercomputer compilers, though this doesn't change my basic point. Ultimately time will tell whether I am right or not, all I am reporting is my perspective from deep within the trenches of that community. John -- John Prentice "I would rather be climbing" john@spectre.unm.edu