GOODENOUGH@A.ISI.EDU (John B. Goodenough) (06/30/86)
I have noted an increasing number of references to Ada88, with the impli- cation that somehow there will be a revised Ada Standard issued in 1988. In my opinion, it is highly unlikely that a revised Standard would complete the revision and approval process before some time in the 1990s. The only reason for referring to 1988 is that ANSI requires that each of its Standards be reviewed every 5 years to see if the Standard is still useful or if a revision is contemplated. There is no requirement that a revision be prepared every 5 years. You may have noticed that the FORTRAN and COBOL Standards tend to be revised every ten years. I see no reason why Ada should have a quicker schedule. Of course the process of preparing a revision can (and should) begin well before an anticipated approval date. And it is useful for members of the Ada community to present and discuss possible language deficiencies and improvements. However, there has been a general feeling among members of the Ada Board that it was premature to start official work leading to a revision of the ANSI/MIL-STD before the International Standard for Ada has been approved (which has not yet occurred, but which should occur soon). Similarly, WG9, the Working Group responsible for the International Standard, directed that the Ada Language Maintenance Committee be restricted to recommending interpretations of the Standard. The issue of whether and how to consider revisions was deferred until at least 1987. In short, it is more accurate to refer to a revised Standard as Ada 9x instead of as Ada88. -------