[GAP] Regarding Cyril's Reply to My Rant

[Riehle, Richard (CIV)]

Cyril,

I guess I missed the Ada edition of Crosstalk.

You are closer to the ground with regard to new initiatives
that are using Ada.  I am happy to hear that you see more
happening than seems apparent from my vantage point.

The DoD projects that I see coming through here seem to be
Ada-averse.   That is, even the mention of Ada is greeted with
either skepticism or amused tolerance.   It is impossible to
get funding for a research project that involves Ada.  All
the funding agencies want to hear about is Java or, to a 
lesser degree, C++.   

I'm sure you know that I have been a long-time supporter and
advocate of Ada, and I am quite aware of its benefits when 
compared to other languages.   In fact, if it were not for my
advocacy, Ada would be completely absent from any aspect of the
NPS computer science curriculum.  As it is, the language is barely
visible at this school.  The speech I mentioned from the Navy 
Admiral did nothing to help with Ada's credibility here.

What articles have been published besides the Crosstalk issue?  Has
there been an article in Federal Computer Week?   Where else?  As you
know, I once had an Ada column in JOOP, but magazine is now gone.  

My current teaching and research projects have made it difficult for
me to keep active in the world of Ada for the past several years. Since
the school is focused on C++ and Java, my attention has had to be 
diverted to projects that use those languages.   I would like to return
Ada to a respected language here.

When I first came to NPS, several professors told me that Ada was a dead
language.  In 2001, one professor told me that, "In five years you won't
be able to get an Ada compiler."  That, of course, was false then and is
false today.   However, it reflects a widespread attitude -- one that I
confront every time I try to introduce Ada into the conversation.

I recently offered a course that is already in the course catalog, "Ada
As a Second Language."   There were no takers.  No one signed up for it.
Some of my professorial colleagues continue to tell students that Ada is
a waste of their time.  

I once published an article in Embedded Systems Magazine titled, "Ada
in Space."  That article was read and discussed by a larger audience
than the readership of Embedded Systems Magazine.  It would be great
to see some articles written, not about Ada, but about the successful
projects that use Ada.  The editor of Dr. Dobbs once told me he would
welcome such articles, but that he was not interested in articles that
simply described features of the language.   More case history articles
that involve Ada would be a powerful approach to improving its image.

Meanwhile, my plan is to eventually update my book "Ada Distilled" to 
include the new features of Ada 2005.   The fact is that no book
publisher
will publish a book on Ada these days, so I will continue to make
available
on the Web when it is finished.   

>From where you sit, Ada may seem to be making great strides, but from
where
I sit, right in the middle of a DoD organization, Ada seems a remote and

quaint niche language that is largely irrelevant to the day-to-day
decision
process.   From the perspective of book publishers, Ada seems to have no
economic viability.   

>From my own view, Ada continues to be the most appropriate language for 
the creation of DoD weapon systems and civilian safety-critical
software.
I still support, advocate for, and encourage the use of Ada.   However,
it
is not easy being the "voice in the wilderness" among colleagues who
generally deprecate Ada.    I will keep Ada in that part of the
curriculum
over which I have influence.  Once I am gone from NPS, Ada will also be
gone -- unless I can find some way to bring it back to life before I
leave.

I wonder whether any other educational institutions are still teaching
Ada.
I know the USAF Academy and USMA at West Point continue to teach it.
The
US Naval Academy offers a little bit of Ada, but not the way it used to.
Are there U.S, civilian schools, other than Dr. McCormick's school,
where Ada is taught openly and without embarrassment?  

Tnanks for your reply to my earlier rant.  I think we need to have this
discussion.  As usual, I am not taking a popular position, but I hope
that
I am still among friends.

Richard  







-----Original Message-----
From: gap-bounces at gnat.info [mailto:gap-bounces at gnat.info] On Behalf Of
Cyrille Comar
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 1:34 AM
To: GNAT Academic Program discussion list
Subject: Re: [GAP] Binding Problem with GNAT

Riehle, Richard (CIV) wrote:

Richard,

I understand your frustration but I must admit being a bit surprized by 
some of your claims since they contradict very much our own experience. 
You seem to be describing the events of the end of the 90's. Not what is

happening at the end of the 2000's. We see a clear new interest in Ada 
coming from a community that did not necessarily follow all the past 
history of the language and don't even know Ada 83. The interest comes 
from the fact that Ada provides a solution to many problems that are 
still not solved adequately by other languages/environments. 
Furthermore, the Ada compilation technology is now much more mature and 
proven-in-use than potential alternative solutions.

> So far, no one has written an article for widespread publication
> announcing the advent of Ada 2005.   I have not even seen such an
> article in Crosstalk. 

You seem to have missed the August 2006 edition that is dedicated 
exclusively to Ada 2005!

  There is never any mention of Ada in any
> of the DoD publications.  Not every Federal Computer Week has had
> an announcement, as far as I know.

here again that does not correspond to my experience. We must be reading

different publications... ;-)

> Sorry for the rant.  

It is good to rant sometimes... but I felt compelled to answer since 
your ranting is clearly not representative of the current situation.

Ada is both a very modern and experienced language. It is true that it 
is mostly popular in the software niche where quality and reliability 
are real requirements. A lot of the software industry privileges short 
time-to-market at the expense of quality & reliability and this is not 
the preferred area for Ada.

  It is also true that the programming language per se is not a major 
focus of the software engineering community anymore. It is only an issue

for a small part of the software development cycle...
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