billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 ) (11/16/89)
>> [...] There is the August 21 89 issue of Government Computer News >> describing the problems which the huge FAA Advanced Automation System is >> having due to IBM Ada implementations and tools (or lack thereof). Apparently IBM has now changed its tune; its recent brochure entitled "Ada and IBM... Capability and Committment" states: IBM is committed to Ada. Ada's support for modern software engineering concepts, its breadth of application, and its support for reuseable software components place it squarely in the forefront as a language of choice for both IBM's software engineers and for IBM's customers. Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu
lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) (11/20/89)
billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu wrote: > [...] "Ada and IBM... Capability and Committment" states: > IBM is committed to Ada. Ada's support for modern software > engineering concepts, its breadth of application, and its > support for reuseable software components place it squarely > in the forefront as a language of choice for both IBM's > software engineers and for IBM's customers. No doubt the simple elegance of Ada appealed to IBM, depite their well-known dislike of such small languages. Lee :-) -- Liam R. Quin, Unixsys (UK) Ltd [note: not an employee of "sq" - a visitor!] lee@sq.com (Whilst visiting Canada from England) lee@anduk.co.uk (Upon my return to England at Christmas)
billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 ) (11/20/89)
From lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin): >> [...] "Ada and IBM... Capability and Committment" states: >> IBM is committed to Ada. Ada's support for modern software >> engineering concepts, its breadth of application, and its >> support for reuseable software components place it squarely >> in the forefront as a language of choice for both IBM's >> software engineers and for IBM's customers. > > No doubt the simple elegance of Ada appealed to IBM Actually, it's rather surprising, since their background has largely consisted of primitive languages which offer little or no support for the software engineering process. It's good to see IBM finally recognizing this major advance in software engineering technology. Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu
lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) (11/26/89)
[I wrote] >> No doubt the simple elegance of Ada appealed to IBM [Bill Wolf wrote] > Actually, it's rather surprising, since their background has > largely consisted of primitive languages which offer little > or no support for the software engineering process. It's good > to see IBM finally recognizing this major advance in software > engineering technology. Uh, did I leave off the :-) signs? I was not being serious. Let's not start religious Ada vs. <whatever> quarrels. [mail me if you absolutely must, I'll try not to take EXCEPTION :-)]. Lee -- Liam R. Quin, Unixsys (UK) Ltd [note: not an employee of "sq" - a visitor!] lee@sq.com (Whilst visiting Canada from England, until Christmas) Software engineering is largely a philosophy, a state of mind.
kcr@netxdev.DHL.COM (Ken Ritchie) (11/26/89)
Recapping: IBM has elected to pursue Ada, surprising some folks(?) :-) C'mon folks... doesn't anybody KNOW about IBM? This had to be a MARKET DRIVEN decision, since IBM (by their own assertion) IS MARKET DRIVEN! The attractiveness of the smiling Countess ;-) (dear Ada) can be only a secondary persuasion. There's going to be a *BOOM* in Ada-based BUSINESS (i.e. $$) and IBM's obvious intention is to be right where the action is!! 8-) DISCLAIMER: I'm opinionated, who isn't? _______________________________________________________________________________ Ken Ritchie (d/b/a KCR) Usenet: ...!uunet!netxcom!netxdev!kcr c/o NetExpress Communications, Inc. FAX/office: USA (703) 749-2375
mellon@nigiri.pa.dec.com (Ted Lemon) (11/28/89)
But now that the military budget is on the chopping block, it would appear that the demand for Ada should decline, rather than increase. After all, who would want to use Ada other than a military person who was forced to by the almighty specification? _MelloN_
billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 ) (11/29/89)
From mellon@nigiri.pa.dec.com (Ted Lemon):
> who would want to use Ada other than a military person
Alcoa, which is using Ada for real-time process control in
its aluminum processing operations; General Electric, which
is using Ada for the software which controls its hot steel
rolling system; Reuters, which is using Ada for its real-time
financial information system, and many others. Ada is growing
very quickly in the commercial sector, and with good reason.
These reasons are described by David A. Feinberg, CDP, in the
December 1987 issue of Data Management (a publication of the
Data Processing Management Association, DPMA). Some excerpts:
The new Ada programming language is proving to be a
boon to software development activities... Programmers
who have switched to Ada strongly feel that it is the
best advance in software systems engineering since the
introduction of the first high-level languages almost
30 years ago... Compiler availability on workstations
suitable for business systems development represent a
significant increment in tool usable by data processing
personnel. This is particularly true when building
online, real-time data processing systems.
Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu