Ada was held back by super-expensive compilers. This was the natural result of Ada being required by military contracts. You paid, or you didn't get the job don

Ada was held back by super-expensive compilers. This was the natural result of Ada being required by military contracts. You paid, or you didn't get the job done. Free compilers are available now, along with free RTOSes that support an Ada runtime. The language seems to be growing in popularity again, partly because of the free compilers and partly because of a renewed interest in security.