[GAP] Regarding Cyril's Reply to My Rant

[Robert Dewar]

Riehle, Richard (CIV) wrote:

> 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.  

I suggest following the Press Center at the www.adacore.com site, you
will see listing of many articles. Most recently:

  Thursday September 27, 2007 | Embedded System Engineering
  Ada for Safety-Critical Systems

  Thursday September 6, 2007 | COTS Journal
  Ada a Winner for High-Integrity Real-Time Apps

  Thursday September 6, 2007 | Avionics Magazine
  C-130 Avionics Modernization Program

> 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.

Well I trust you saw my piece in Dr Dobbs on "Safety AND Security" ...

Robert

>>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.

Probably a reasonbable judgment, it's not a mass market project, but if
you are saying you don't know of current DoD projects using Ada, then
that's definitely a matter of not having done enough homework, there are
lots of important DoD projects that continue to use Ada. There are of
course lots that don't, and the navy (the service that brought you the
blue screen of death on the NT equipped frigate) is particularly prone
to pushing the latest-and-greatest fad, which right now is perceived
to be real-time Ada (note that not one line of safety-critical Java
is flying in the skies at the current time).


> 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?  

Sure, quite a number
> 
> 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.

the important thing is to be well informed. You will find a lot of 
information on www.adacore.com.
> 
> 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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