Re: Ada in Iraq

[Colin_Paul_Gloster@ACM.org (Colin Paul Gloster)]

Russ wrote:
  
"I work for a US government lab that does extensive work in air traffic
management (ATM). We will have major input into the future of ATM in
the US. As some of you may recall, I have a problem with some of Ada's
syntax, but I am nevertheless convinced that Ada is fundamentally
solid and is the right choice for the kind of software we develop and
will develop in the future.

Unfortunately, however, none of my colleagues is even willing to
consider using Ada. It's considered a "non-starter." C, C++, and Java
are the only languages considered. Ada wasn't even on the radar screen
until I brought it up. Also, I get the impression that professors who
study safety-critical systems are mostly using Java. "Real-time Java"
is gaining major momentum, and I fear that it could crush Ada.

I have the privledge of working with top experts in the world on
"revolutionary" new ATM system architectures. I ocassionally try to
sell them on Ada, but my efforts are starting to become a sort of
joke. Some of them think I am "obsessed" with Ada, and none of them
seems to think the choice of language is of fundamental importance
anyway. It's an "implementation detail" as far as most of the managers
are concerned."

and

"Let me follow up on my earlier post. Here is an excerpt from an email
I recently received from a very competent and productive software
engineer who works down the hall from me and who has great influence
over our choice of language:

Your continued obsession with Ada for purely academic reasons is a
seemingly naive approach to real software development.  I have not
seen any legitimate justification for switching to Ada.  Which feature
of Ada critical to our **** development cannot be achieved with
C/C++/Java?  There are several reasons why Ada is not practical. 
[..]"

Of those people who work as subcontractors to the European Space
Agency, two of the most ardent supporters of Java and detractors of Ada
(namely Alessandro Pasetti -- who unlike most people whose first choice 
is not Ada, he does actually understand Ada 83 and Ada 95 and profiles
very well and has actually given me valuable support in an Ada project --
of P & P Software ( HTTP://WWW.PnP-Software.com/ ) and Erik Aad Visser of
Computer Hardware Een Embedded Software Systems
( HTTP://WWW.CHESS.NL/chess_alg.php?language=english )) said at the DAta
Systems In Aerospace ( HTTP://WWW.Eurospace.org/dasia.html ) conference
last year that they expect it would be nearly as late at 2007 before there
would be a Java implementation of high enough reliability to use in space
(in orbit and unmanned).

As far as the language chosen not being a fundamental detail and only
being an implementation issue is concerned, there are actually flexibility
benefits or penalties in choosing between different programming languages.

Regards,
Colin Paul Gloster