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On February 15, 1995, the Ada Resource Association announced in Washington, D.C., that the 1995 revision of the Ada programming language has been accepted by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland, and was being released on that day through publication of the revised standard reference manual.
The ISO approval makes the revision, called Ada 95, the first internationally standardised fully object-oriented programming (OOP) language and follows on Ada's expanding use in a variety of civil and commercial applications. The majority of Ada applications are for core business capabilities -- from manufacturing process control and industrial design to telecommunications and diagnostic analysis -- and comprise a wide spectrum of industries including transportation, finance, health care, energy and national security, among others.
Ada 95 was designed and developed by an international process of unprecedented scale for a programming language. A Board of Distinguished Reviewers -- representing six different countries and comprising twenty-eight world- renowned leaders in academia and industry -- provided oversight and evaluation of the immense input from the international community of users. Over 750 recommendations were received by individuals -- many from the world's leading companies -- who were invited to submit Revision Requests. Conferences, workshops, small-group meetings and one-on-one consultations were held with various segments of the Ada community, and advice was received from some of the world's finest software engineers and technology leaders. The entire revision process required over four years to complete.
The revision retains the inherent integrity and efficiency of the original version of Ada, called Ada 83, as the first advanced building-block language to assemble a host of important features while adhering to the demands of modern software engineering practice. In addition to OOP support, the new Ada provides more efficient real-time and parallel programming facilities while remaining fully portable, and addresses vital concerns for business such as the effective integration of legacy systems and upward compatibility.
New features include international character sets, improved generic templates, and a set of changes that will reduce the time needed to recompile large systems. Like Ada 83, Ada 95 is a strongly typed language, with full support for encapsulation and information hiding. Increased functionality allows for support of smaller, more dynamic systems. Strong support for interfaces to other languages facilitates calls to existing subroutine libraries and OO frameworks. This makes the transition to Ada a viable alternative.
The revision is an update of the 1987 ISO release and the equivalent 1983 American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Ada standard. Drafts of the revised standard were formally considered by ISO between September 1993 and October 1994; ballots were cast over a period of 15 months by the 22 member countries, and officially tallied on November 1, 1994. ISO delegates accepted the revision unanimously.
Ada 95 entered the last stage of the ANSI approval process on February 15, 1995, with final submission of the revision, following a second public review and comment period. ANSI coordinates the US voluntary standards system and is the official US body to the world's leading standards organisations. Ada 95 is also being adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a FIPS -- the Federal Information Processing Standard.
The design of the language revisions, as well as creation of a new reference manual, was completed by Intermetrics, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. The revision is receiving strong support from compiler vendors such as Thomson Software Products (formerly Alsys, Inc.), Rational Software Corporation, Intermetrics, Silicon Graphics and Tartan, which have been developing tools and environments. Moreover, the GNAT project at New York University is building a high-quality Ada 95 compiler, distributed at no cost and with sources, following the successful mechanisms established by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GCC compiler. GNAT allows students, academics, and software professionals to experiment now with the new version of Ada. GNAT also helps the spread of Ada to the software community at large.
"Ada offers commercial developers an ideal blend of consistency, maturity, reliability and performance. Ada 95 defines a new language standard that is open, accommodating to change and conducive to innovation by top technical talent -- all while providing the discipline and support for the engineering required in critical software systems," notes Robert Mathis, Ph.D., executive director of the Ada Resource Association.
"Ada has always strongly supported object-oriented design and analysis. The revision builds on that strength with full support for OOP, along with the maintainability that makes it the most logical choice for safety- and business-critical applications," noted the Chief Language Designer, S. Tucker Taft. "The primary reason for choosing Ada is still the bottom line -- it's cheaper to build a reliable system in Ada than in any other language."
Chris Anderson, project manager for Ada 95 and co-editor of the revised standard reference manual, added: "No other language has ever been created following written requirements refined by the world's best in computer programming and software development. Ada 95 is the culmination of these efforts, thereby delivering the most viable, cost-effective language for the development of long- term software solutions."
The Ada Resource Association (ARA) -- a professional association of over two hundred member companies, organisations and individuals -- is actively engaged in meeting the expanding requirements of the world-wide user community. Formed in 1989 as the Ada Software Alliance, its objective is to promote and enhance the use of the Ada language and associated software engineering technology in applications and programs that benefit the customer.
In May, Ada-Belgium organises its yearly Ada Tools Exhibition (tentative place and date: Leuven, Tuesday, May 16). This will be the main event in Belgium for people interested in Ada and associated technology to see presentations of new Ada 95 tools and utilities.
If you would like to be kept informed on this event, or your organisation would like to reserve exhibit space, please contact the Ada-Belgium secretariat (preferably via e-mail, see below).
Ada-Belgium
c/o Universite' Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Boulevard du Triomphe / Triomflaan
Campus de la Plaine, CP 202
B-1050 Brussels
Phone 02/650.56.11, Fax 02/650.56.09
E-mail: ada@belgium.eu.net
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Last update: 95/03/28.
Dirk Craeynest