[net.wanted] Request for Ada information

jon@shell.UUCP (Jon M. Holdman) (02/19/85)

  We at Shell are undertaking the development of a large system using
Ada.  This system will attempt to replace a large number of programs
written in various flavors of FORTRAN.  We would like to consider using 
our new system on Sperry (UNIVAC), VAX, IBM, and Cray mainframes.

   We would be interested in knowing what your experiences or knowledge
might be in the following areas:

      1)   Compiler availability and quality for the above machines.

      2)   Speed of Ada compilers in general.  Our (very limited)
	   experience indicates they are very slow.
     
      3)   Descriptions of features of "Ada Environments".  This
	   might include libraries, editors, debuggers, etc.
	   One product along this line is the Byron system.
      
      4)   Training difficulty and time required.

      5)   Availability of commercial classes for Ada and Ada
	   environment tools.

      6)   Ease of code development and maintenance.  We've read what
	   it's supposed to be like, but we would like to hear from
	   someone who's done some programming in Ada.

      7)   Speed of execution.  How does Ada code compare to 
	   FORTRAN and C for such areas as:
	   -  Number crunching
	   -  I/O   
	   -  Managing large arrays (e.g. 384x2560)

      8)   Any other comments you might have concerning Ada for 
	   development of large systems.

Please mail any comments to me at the address below.  If response 
warrants, I will summarize and post the results in net.lang.ada.
Thanks for your time and effort.
 
Full name : Jon M. Holdman
USENET    : ...!{ihnp4,pur-ee,ut-sally}!shell!jon
US Mail   : Bellaire Research Center, P.O.Box 481, Houston TX 77001
Phone     : (713)-663-2366