Ada: experience it again for the first time

Many companies are beginning the transition to the DOD's new standard software language, Ada. Developing software with Ada requires new training for software engineers and changes to company software standards and procedures. Transitioning to Ada is not easy. Difficulties in using Ada stem from the language's complexity, changes in software methodology, and immaturity of first-generation compilers and software tools. Furthermore, developing Ada on a large project places its own special demands on the Ada programming support environment. Some of these Ada issues are not well known. In many cases, tools to support these demands are not commercially available.

This paper provides insight into experiences with the Ada programming support environment on the first major Ada simulator project at Link. The paper discusses difficulties, lessons learned, and solutions. Our approach at Link was the result of a strong customer demand for improved software maintainability. This perspective strongly influenced all of our software-related decisions. Included in this paper are discussions of issues relating to managing Ada libraries on a large project, testing Ada software on a large project, and the need for a real-time architecture model to guide software engineers.