Re: Ada and C++: A request for comparison/contrast/relative benefits

[agate!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!venice!gumby.dsd.trw.com!truffula.fp.trw .com!trwacs!erwin@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Harry Erwin)]

In article <1993Aug10.185341.10437@mksol.dseg.ti.com>
mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:
>In <2465ea$gjg@truffula.fp.trw.com> erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin)
>writes:
>
>>I agree with Mike Feldman on the appropriate applications for Ada. The
>>thought of man-rated application (such as air traffic control) programed
>>in C gives me the cold shudders. 
>
>Well, stand prepared to shudder, then.  First, what do you think
>everything was written in before there was Ada, Sanskrit?  Secondly,
>an ATC facility may have its software written in Ada, but it's talking
>over a phone network whose switching software was written in C/C++.

The phone network software has been thoroughly tested out by use by the
general public. Interestingly, the voice switching software used by the
enroute facilities is being written in (mostly) Pascal, which is a
reasonable compromise position between C and Ada. And error recovery,
fault tolerance, and maintainability/availability are key requirements.

My opinions only, not those of TRW or the FAA.
-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com
Working on Freeman nets....