Who's using Ada in industry?

Who's using Ada in industry?

[Michael Feldman]

Hello everyone,

After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list, I've started to maintain it actively again. I've put a revised version online at

http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada-project-summary.html

I've changed the "look" a bit, added a few listings, changed the order of the project groupings, and removed all the dead links (without removing the associated listings). There aren't too many links now, but I think they are all valid.

Now I need your help. Please look at this long and interesting list, and let me know if you have anything to add to it (or delete if necessary). If you can provide a valid link for a project that doesn't have one, that would be great.

This list will best serve the community if its listings refer to actual applications of Ada that are either fielded or under active implementation. I don't want to pad the list with tools, compilers, libraries, etc., but rather to respond to the question "who is actually using Ada in industry?".

If you are close enough to a project to know there's "Ada inside", please let me hear from you. In the past, some listings have come from "anonymous sources"; you can be assured of my discretion; I always respect the confdentiality of my informants.

As always, please help make this list as complete and accurate as possible; it's good for all of us.

Thanks very much in advance for your help and interest! 

Best regards,

Michael Feldman
Chairman, ACM SIGAda Education Working Group 
Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Science
The George Washington University

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Ludovic Brenta]

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
> Now I need your help. Please look at this long and interesting list,
> and let me know if you have anything to add to it (or delete if
> necessary). If you can provide a valid link for a project that
> doesn't have one, that would be great.

Barco Avionics [1] and Eurocontrol's Central Flow Management Unit [2]
are both missing from your list, and both have publicly stated they
used Ada.

[1] http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~dirk/ada-belgium/events/07/070612-abga-event.html
[2] http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~dirk/ada-belgium/events/06/060226-fosdem.html

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[John B. Matthews]

In article <13u5rikmodtea4d@corp.supernews.com>,
 mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) wrote:

> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list, I've started to 
> maintain it actively again. I've put a revised version online at
> 
> http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada-project-summary.html

Excellent! Sadly, the link for SAIC's radar simulator appears outdated; 
this one looks fresher:

<http://www.saic.com/products/simulation/radsim3/>

John
-- 
John B. Matthews
trashgod at gmail dot com
home dot woh dot rr dot com slash jbmatthews

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Niklas Holsti]

Michael Feldman wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list,
> I've started to maintain it actively again.

Very good indeed.

> I don't want to pad the list
> with tools, compilers, libraries, etc., but rather to respond
> to the question "who is actually using Ada in industry?".

I suspect that this exclusion of the SW tool industry from the 
definition of "industry" may focus the list on the traditional Ada 
application areas -- military and aerospace -- and exclude small or 
start-up Ada adopters in other areas. This could reinforce 
prejudice against Ada in other areas and especially in the SW tools 
area.

I understand that a vendor of Ada compilers may be suspected of 
bias if the vendor chooses to write the compilers in Ada. But the 
same should not happen when a C compiler, or a language-neutral 
tool, is written in Ada. Moreover, I believe that the reputation of 
Java has been boosted by the fact that many tools for Java 
development are written in Java. Why should the same not be true 
for Ada? If SW tool projects were listed under their own heading -- 
perhaps as the last group -- they should not detract from the 
impact of the other projects on the list.

I admit that I am biased, as my own project (and that of at least 
one other company in the same area, that I know of) are SW tools 
and thus apparently not wanted on the list. Perhaps only large, 
expensive projects are wanted? In that case it would be clearer to 
say so.

-- 
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
       .      @       .

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[axtens]

The Protium Project <http://www.protiumblue.com> is using Ada
internally, though not for the entire project.

Kind regards,
Bruce.

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Michael Feldman]

Niklas Holsti wrote:
> Michael Feldman wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list,
>> I've started to maintain it actively again.
> 
> Very good indeed.
> 
>> I don't want to pad the list
>> with tools, compilers, libraries, etc., but rather to respond
>> to the question "who is actually using Ada in industry?".
> 
> I suspect that this exclusion of the SW tool industry from the 
> definition of "industry" may focus the list on the traditional Ada 
> application areas -- military and aerospace -- and exclude small or 
> start-up Ada adopters in other areas. This could reinforce prejudice 
> against Ada in other areas and especially in the SW tools area.

Perhaps so, though the list contains items from enough other domains 
that I don't think anyone can say it's limited to defense and aerospace. 
Railroad signaling is a very important domain for the public and for 
Ada; unfortunately it's difficult to get information because that 
industry is, well, very secretive.
> 
> I understand that a vendor of Ada compilers may be suspected of bias if 
> the vendor chooses to write the compilers in Ada. But the same should 
> not happen when a C compiler, or a language-neutral tool, is written in 
> Ada. Moreover, I believe that the reputation of Java has been boosted by 
> the fact that many tools for Java development are written in Java. Why 
> should the same not be true for Ada? If SW tool projects were listed 
> under their own heading -- perhaps as the last group -- they should not 
> detract from the impact of the other projects on the list.

Done - see below.
> 
> I admit that I am biased, as my own project (and that of at least one 
> other company in the same area, that I know of) are SW tools and thus 
> apparently not wanted on the list. Perhaps only large, expensive 
> projects are wanted? In that case it would be clearer to say so.
> 
Niklas makes a good point, so let me explain a bit further. I'm a 
(now-retired) college professor with no personal connection at all to 
any of these projects, and CERTAINLY no interest in pushing big, 
expensive projects over small ones. I'm not a spokesman for any big 
industry!

I've been maintaining this project list -- off and on and off, now 
definitely on again -- for a number of years. During the years before 
that, and since, I've heard from friends in the industry that in order 
to promote Ada they needed to hear about applications -- "killer apps, 
if possible:-) -- in real, operating, systems.

They thought it was nice that this or that library or IDE or code 
analyzer was written in Ada, but these tools are "self-referential" in 
the sense that they are written by developers for developers. So I 
concluded that I shouldn't focus on tools but rather on fielded apps for 
people other than software developers.

That said, your suggestion to add a tool section to the list is a good 
one and I will do that. Niklas, please send me info on yours. Others, 
please help. I do think it sends a negative message to publish a 1-line 
list, so please excuse me if I wait a while before I publicly add this 
section, just to give it a chance to build up to a few good lines.

Also, please keep in mind the old adage: if you like what you see, tell 
your friends. If you have a complaint, tell *me*. I don't necessarily 
read c.l.a. every day, so it make take time before I read others' posts 
to it.

In the two days since I posted my call for contributions I've received 
at least a dozen e-mail responses. I'll post an updated list in a week 
or so, after I've had a chance to process everything.

Thanks for your help!

Mike

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[adaworks]

This issue is easily resolved by simply adding a category for Software
Engineering Tools.   It is probably a good idea to have such a
category.

Richard Riehle
====================================================
"Niklas Holsti" <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> wrote in message 
news:47e4078f$0$23819$4f793bc4@news.tdc.fi...
> Michael Feldman wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list,
>> I've started to maintain it actively again.
>
> Very good indeed.
>
>> I don't want to pad the list
>> with tools, compilers, libraries, etc., but rather to respond
>> to the question "who is actually using Ada in industry?".
>
> I suspect that this exclusion of the SW tool industry from the definition of 
> "industry" may focus the list on the traditional Ada application areas --  
> military and aerospace -- and exclude small or start-up Ada adopters in other 
> areas. This could reinforce prejudice against Ada in other areas and 
> especially in the SW tools area.
>
> I understand that a vendor of Ada compilers may be suspected of bias if the 
> vendor chooses to write the compilers in Ada. But the same should not happen 
> when a C compiler, or a language-neutral tool, is written in Ada. Moreover, I 
> believe that the reputation of Java has been boosted by the fact that many 
> tools for Java development are written in Java. Why should the same not be 
> true for Ada? If SW tool projects were listed under their own heading -- 
> perhaps as the last group -- they should not detract from the impact of the 
> other projects on the list.
>
> I admit that I am biased, as my own project (and that of at least one other 
> company in the same area, that I know of) are SW tools and thus apparently not 
> wanted on the list. Perhaps only large, expensive projects are wanted? In that 
> case it would be clearer to say so.
>
> -- 
> Niklas Holsti
> Tidorum Ltd
> niklas holsti tidorum fi
>       .      @       . 

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Niklas Holsti]

Michael Feldman wrote:
> Niklas Holsti wrote:
> 
>> Michael Feldman wrote:
>>>
>>> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list,
>>> I've started to maintain it actively again.
>>
>> If SW tool 
>> projects were listed under their own heading -- perhaps as the last 
>> group -- they should not detract from the impact of the other projects 
>> on the list.
> 
> Done - see below.

Thanks for adding this category. Although perhaps you shouldn't 
have, since (as you explain later) you had good reason to omit it 
in the first place.

>> Perhaps only large, expensive 
>> projects are wanted? In that case it would be clearer to say so.
>>
> Niklas makes a good point, so let me explain a bit further. I'm a 
> (now-retired) college professor with no personal connection at all to 
> any of these projects, and CERTAINLY no interest in pushing big, 
> expensive projects over small ones. I'm not a spokesman for any big 
> industry!

Michael, if my comment was offensive, I apologize, it was not meant 
to be. (I had been looking at my bank balance and feeling a bit 
green, perhaps it came through in the wording :-)

There would be nothing wrong with a list that included only big, 
expensive Ada projects. Ada compiler vendors need such projects, 
and companies choosing a language for a big, expensive SW project 
are obviously more influenced if they see Ada being used in similar 
big, expensive projects, than they are by small Ada projects.

> I've been maintaining this project list -- off and on and off, now 
> definitely on again -- for a number of years. During the years before 
> that, and since, I've heard from friends in the industry that in order 
> to promote Ada they needed to hear about applications -- "killer apps, 
> if possible:-) -- in real, operating, systems.
> 
> They thought it was nice that this or that library or IDE or code 
> analyzer was written in Ada, but these tools are "self-referential" in 
> the sense that they are written by developers for developers. So I 
> concluded that I shouldn't focus on tools but rather on fielded apps for 
> people other than software developers.

Ok, I understand better now. If that is what the audience of this 
list wants, that is what they should get.

> That said, your suggestion to add a tool section to the list is a good 
> one and I will do that. Niklas, please send me info on yours.

Fine, I will (and I will prompt the other company that I mentioned 
to send you their info, too). But I do now understand your initial 
exclusion of such projects, so feel free to go back to your 
original definition of the list.

If you do exclude some projects, perhaps it would be a good idea to 
explain the project selection rules in the introduction to the 
list? Sort of suggesting that this is only a selected sample of the 
vast mass of Ada applications out there :-)

-- 
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
       .      @       .

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Reinert Korsnes]

Michael Feldman wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list, I've started
> to maintain it actively again. I've put a revised version online at
> 
> http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada-project-summary.html
> 

Open Source projects ?

Ref:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
http://www.opensource.org/

reinert

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Michael Feldman]

Reinert Korsnes wrote:
> Michael Feldman wrote:
> 
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list, I've started
>> to maintain it actively again. I've put a revised version online at
>>
>> http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada-project-summary.html
>>
> 
> Open Source projects ?
> 
> Ref:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
> http://www.opensource.org/
> 
> reinert

Open source projects are fine -- do you have specific ones? I have only 
limited time for researching projects; I'd prefer to receive tips from 
people who know the specifics.

Mike

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[John B. Matthews]

In article <k_idnVJjXOc3onfa4p2dnAA@telenor.com>,
 Reinert Korsnes <a@b.no> wrote:

> Michael Feldman wrote:
> 
> > Hello everyone,
> > 
> > After several years of inactivity with the Ada project list, I've started
> > to maintain it actively again. I've put a revised version online at
> > 
> > http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/ada-project-summary.html
> > 
> Open Source projects ?

I've enjoyed using these:

Ada Web Server <https://libre.adacore.com/aws/main.html>
GtkAda <https://libre.adacore.com/GtkAda/>
LinXtris <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linxtris>
Latin-English-Latin <http://users.erols.com/whitaker/words.htm>

John
-- 
John B. Matthews
trashgod at gmail dot com
home dot woh dot rr dot com slash jbmatthews

Re: Who's using Ada in industry?

[Martin Krischik]

Michael Feldman schrieb:

> Open source projects are fine -- do you have specific ones? I have only 
> limited time for researching projects; I'd prefer to receive tips from 
> people who know the specifics.

Browsing Sourceforce by category will give you 142 hits:

https://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=163

Then all AdaCore Projecte are (more or less) OpenSoruce - and some of 
them are quite large:

https://libre.adacore.com/

Martin

-- 
mailto://krischik@users.sourceforge.net
Ada programming at: http://ada.krischik.com