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ABSTRACT.HLP

Ada Information Clearinghouse (1-800-AdaIC-11, 1-703/685-1477)

                               Ada ABSTRACTS

The following are abstracts of Ada-related articles that have appeared in 
professional journals and magazines, commercial publications, and company 
newsletters.  If you need additional information, please call the AdaIC at 
1-800-AdaIC-11 or 703/685-1477.

Announcement of a product, service, or event is for information purposes and 
does not constitute an endorsement by the Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO) or 
the Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC).

Fitch, Geoff, "The Effects of Ada on Compilation," Defense Electronics, Vol. 
25, No. 7, June 1993, pp. 48-52.

Mr. Fitch discusses the benefits gained from using incremental compilers.

He says "With traditional compilation, the effort required to integrate the 
change is related not to the size of the change but to the size of the package 
and the system as a whole.  With systems of even moderate complexity, work can 
be delayed, affecting large parts of the project."

"An incremental compiler does not treat the package as a whole but examines 
each statement to determine precisely what changes have been made... The 
incremental compiler then performs recompilation, limiting the recompilation 
in other packages to just the places that use the changed statements.  
Although the Ada language standard requires strict ordering of recompilation 
when a change is make, it allows compilers to reduce the compilation cost if 
it can deduce that some of the potentially affected units are not actually 
affected by the change-an allowance that enables incremental compilation to 
take place," says Mr. Fitch.

He concludes that "The important value of incremental technology is that it 
makes the time required to integrate a change proportional to the size of the 
change--not the size of the overall system."

Endoso, Joyce.  "Interview:  Ralph Crafts, Ada Maverick; Ada proponent says 
training, not tools, will improve software," Government Computer News, Vol. 
12, No. 10, May 10, 1993, pp 14, 16.

GCN staff writer Joyce Endoso interviewed Crafts at GCN's offices in Silver 
Spring, Maryland.  A synopsis of the published interview follows:

In response to questions about why he disapproved of the DoD's Integrated 
Computer-Aided Software Engineering buy, Mr Crafts said, "If we automate the 
current practices at DoD, we are going to make ourselves more efficient at 
doing bad things... Give me a team of skilled software engineers with 
primitive tools, and I will out perform any other team that has access to very 
powerful tools.  The problem with DoD is that we constantly default to try to 
use technology as the solution. Technology is not the problem."  

Regarding questions about the availability of software engineering at defense 
universities, he expressed his concern that a software engineering program 
does not now exist.  He said, that because there are not any minimum 
requirements for education or any form of certification process,  "Literally 
anybody in this country can hang up a shingle and be a programmer."

In his final statements, he said, "If we don't have a national priority that's 
oriented toward improving software engineering, from the education to the 
knowledge of the managers and the procurement people, we are going to be a 
less than first-rate economic power by the turn of the century.  I believe 
that software engineering and skilled software engineers are the two most 
important facets in preventing that from happening.  If you can show me, based 
on good engineering criteria, that there's a better language than Ada, I will 
pack up my tent and go home and you can use that language."

Barnes, John,  "Object-oriented Programming; Ada 9X Offers Flexibility & 
Reliability,"  Alsys World Dialogue, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 1993, pp. 4, 5.

Mr. Barnes discusses how Ada9x features enhance Ada's object-oriented 
programming capabilities.

He says, "the object-oriented properties of Ada 9X offer many important 
advantages such as type extensions, class-wide programming, and dynamic 
dispatching.  As a consequence, a system can be extended reliably without 
having to disturb and recompile existing proven parts." 

Endoso, Joyce, "Ada Gets Credit for F-22's Software Success," Government 
Computer News, Vol. 12, No. 9, April 26, 1993, p. 6.

"Much of the credit for the software integration success of the Air Force's 
F-22 program goes to Ada," said Lt. Gen. Albert Edmonds, the Joint Staff's 
acting director for command, control, communications and computer systems.

He cautioned that Ada is not a panacea, but praised the inherent disciplined 
approach to developing software that Ada provides and said that "nothing can 
compare with its [Ada's] ability to         integrate different efforts."

Lt. Gen. Edmonds, who sets C4 systems policy for the Defense Department, spoke 
at the DoD Annual Software Technology Conference held at Salt Lake City, Utah.

Jenks, Andrew, "Alsys Group Still Banks on Ada Computer Language," Washington 
Technology, Vol. 8, No. 3, April 22, 1993.

The Alsys Group has moved its worldwide headquarters from France to Reston, 
Virginia.  Alsys recently acquired Telesoft, which ran most of its worldwide 
business from offices in San Diego, California.  Together the two firms made 
$43 million in revenues for 1992 and will have a combined staff of about 280.  
About 30 people will be located at the firm's Washington area headquarters.  
Sixty percent of the firm's business and development occurs in the United 
States.

Pentagon users have balked at the idea of using Ada for routine data 
processing applications

Ada efforts are focused in the former U.S. Alsys headquarters in Burlington, 
Mass.  CASE development is centered in the former TeleSoft headquarters in San 
Diego.

Alsys claims a 50 percent share of Ada software development products for the 
UNIX operating system that dominates the technical and federal markets.  About 
half of the firm's business comes from defense and the other half from the 
aerospace, transportation, and automotive industries.

Jean-Louis Olie, CEO of the Alsys Group believes that the implementation of 
Ada 9X, which adds object-oriented capabilities, will put Ada more on a par 
with arch competitor C++.

Menke, Susan M.,  "Defense Users, executives Want to Know Where Ada Effort 
Stands," Government Computer News, Volume 12, No. 7, March 29, 1993, p. 3.

"We need to stop the language free-for-all and make an unbiased analysis of 
DoD needs.  Put the Ada controversy to bed and clearly articulate what the 
demand for Ada products is," said Lt. Gen. Peter A. Kind, director of 
information systems for command, control, communications and computers.

General Kind, who spoke at the 11th National Conference on Ada Technology, 
Williamsburg, Virginia, said "We're not going to make a huge change overnight, 
as I see it.  We're hearing calls to abandon Ada from DoD officials.  I'm 
asking contractors to assess it, and they say it does what's needed but they 
can't get enough qualified programmers."

"Meanwhile Ada reuse efforts are building momentum," Rear Adm. Robert M. Moore 
told the conference.  "Moore, commander of the Naval Information Systems 
Management Center, said the service is about to publish its software reuse 
implementation plans."

"Customers are eager for the promised savings from reuse, according to Marrea 
Riggs, director of the Army reuse center in Falls Church, Virginia."

"Bob Rutherford, senior engineer at the Air Force Defense Software Repository 
at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, said 'actual avoidance of costs' from four 
reuses of an Ada Posix binding would amount to $15.8 million."

                            **********************

Copyright 1993.  IIT Research Institute.  All rights assigned to the U.S. 
Government (Ada Joint Program Office).   Permission to reprint this flyer, in 
whole or in part, is granted, provided the AdaIC is acknowledged as the 
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