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Team Ada: Ada Programming Language Advocacy


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Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 17:14:25 -0700
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From: John Apa <[log in to unmask]>
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I guess the question then becomes "How much failure is marketable?"

I don't think it's just you. There's a lot of emphasis on safety
critical, maybe we need to include basic reliability also. Banking,
utilities, and communication systems may not fit the typical "safety"
slot, but they are just as critical to our modern life as planes staying
in the air or keeping trains on track. If those don't seem like a safety
threat think of sitting in a dark cold house with a dead phone line
trying to dial 911 because you're having a heart attack (induced by your
bank losing your life savings and then charging you a $15 overdraft
fee!) Granted, this won't happen to may people but it makes the point
that we are very dependent on these modern systems.

The Y2K problem is educating a lot of people about how dependent they
are on computers/software. They are terrified! We can't say that Ada
would have prevented the problem, but Y2K can be used as a spring board
to show how important it is to have reliable (Ada!) software in our
everyday lives. Any tools (Ada!) that help to achieve that end would be
seen as valuable.

Good enough isn't, when it's your money, your job, your family, or your

My $0.02

John T Apa

>From:  Jerry van Dijk [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent:  Monday, December 14, 1998 3:43 PM
>To:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject:       Re: Choose Ada flyer
>>                  When your software has to fly...
>>                          Choose Ada.
>> Ada is the language of the International Space Station, Boeing jets,
>> world-wide Air Traffic Control, and the French TGV high-speed train.
>My first impression is: obviously a great language for safety critical
>applications. We do not build safety critical applications, so... we
>stick to C++ (or JAVA, or...)
>Does anyone else get the same impression or is this just me again ?