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So who here (at HN) is using Ada, what for, and do you expect it to become more or less widely used in the future?

by javert 12y ago

achille 12y ago
Until leaving Oracle about a year ago, I'd been doing a lot of development in PL/SQL, which is extremely similar and compiles to the same ADA bytecode (called DIANA). Most of Oracle's E-Business Suite is written in PL/SQL, although some components are being re-written in Java (ADF) in the new Fusion Middleware stack. If your company is using Oracle for payroll or financials (this includes lots of companies, including Apple, Google etc), it's likely some of the customizations have been developed recently, and they've been developed in PL/SQL. Many of the components in EBS have not changed in decades So to answer your question, developers at Google right now are writing in Ada (well almost): > https://www.google.com/about/careers/search/?#!t=jo&jid=1144001& https://www.google.com/about/careers/search/?#!t=jo&jid=1144... It's not easy to rewrite either. Writing ERP software is extremely hard, because it can't be cleanly modeled in a few abstractions. There are a lot of edge cases. I would suggest reading Ward Cunningham's http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyIsPayrollHard http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyIsPayrollHard
- ams6110 12y ago
  Intresting nugget, I never knew that. I have done a lot of PL/SQL development and thought it was pretty OK. Not my favorite language, but not the worst either. I do recall the occasional obscure "Cannot generate diana for an object" errors and never really knew what those meant; the Oracle documentation was very vague and basically said it was a "contact support" type of error.
- cafard 12y ago
  Yes, PL/SQL occurred me too. It has its flaws, but I greatly prefer it to T-SQL.
jmilkbal 12y ago
I use Ada everyday developing a predictive dialer and contact management system for call centers and it's web-based front-end. Interest has been steadily growing since I started with the language in 2006. One, possibly useless, indication is that the #ada channel on freenode used to hover in the single digits and now regularly hovers around 70. People regularly enter the channel asking how to get started.
tjr 12y ago
We still have some Ada code lingering in a suite of avionics simulation tools; I am actually right now in the process of migrating our code to GNAT from a proprietary Ada vendor. But we don't tend to write new code in Ada. My observation in the avionics / defense world is that Ada is being used less and less, in favor of C, C++, or sometimes Java. Even some old Ada code is being rewritten in other languages.
tormeh 12y ago
I hear Kongsberg writes their missile software in Ada.

So who here (at HN) is using Ada, what for, and do you expect it to become more or less widely used in the future?

by javert 12y ago

So who here (at HN) is using Ada, what for, and do you expect it to become more or less widely used in the future?

Until leaving Oracle about a year ago, I'd been doing a lot of development in PL/SQL, which is extremely similar and compiles to the same ADA bytecode (called DIANA). Most of Oracle's E-Business Suite is written in PL/SQL, although some components are being re-written in Java (ADF) in the new Fusion Middleware stack. If your company is using Oracle for payroll or financials (this includes lots of companies, including Apple, Google etc), it's likely some of the customizations have been developed recently, and they've been developed in PL/SQL. Many of the components in EBS have not changed in decades So to answer your question, developers at Google right now are writing in Ada (well almost): > https://www.google.com/about/careers/search/?#!t=jo&jid=1144001& https://www.google.com/about/careers/search/?#!t=jo&jid=1144... It's not easy to rewrite either. Writing ERP software is extremely hard, because it can't be cleanly modeled in a few abstractions. There are a lot of edge cases. I would suggest reading Ward Cunningham's http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyIsPayrollHard http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyIsPayrollHard

ams6110 12y ago
Intresting nugget, I never knew that. I have done a lot of PL/SQL development and thought it was pretty OK. Not my favorite language, but not the worst either. I do recall the occasional obscure "Cannot generate diana for an object" errors and never really knew what those meant; the Oracle documentation was very vague and basically said it was a "contact support" type of error.
cafard 12y ago
Yes, PL/SQL occurred me too. It has its flaws, but I greatly prefer it to T-SQL.

jmilkbal 12y ago

I use Ada everyday developing a predictive dialer and contact management system for call centers and it's web-based front-end. Interest has been steadily growing since I started with the language in 2006. One, possibly useless, indication is that the #ada channel on freenode used to hover in the single digits and now regularly hovers around 70. People regularly enter the channel asking how to get started.

tjr 12y ago

We still have some Ada code lingering in a suite of avionics simulation tools; I am actually right now in the process of migrating our code to GNAT from a proprietary Ada vendor. But we don't tend to write new code in Ada. My observation in the avionics / defense world is that Ada is being used less and less, in favor of C, C++, or sometimes Java. Even some old Ada code is being rewritten in other languages.

tormeh 12y ago

I hear Kongsberg writes their missile software in Ada.