Ada specialists can find work in avionics and
security.
What is it?
The telecoms, defence, aerospace and medical technology
industries all depend on Ada, described by the Ada compiler and
tools company Adacore as "a modern programming language designed
for large, long-lived applications - and embedded systems in
particular - where reliability and efficiency are essential".
The Ada Resource Association says there are 322 million lines of
Ada Code in use, in applications of up to five million lines.
The last major revision was Ada 95; now Ada 2005 is being
implemented.
Where did it originate?
Ada was based on Pascal (and more distantly Algol), and first
developed (Ada 83) by Honeywell-Bull, winners of a US Department of
Defense contract to find one language to replace the 2000-odd then
used in critical applications.
It is named after Augusta Ada Lovelace, regarded by computer
historians as the first programmer. Ada 95 became an ISO standard.
Much of the work behind Ada 2005 has been done by the user
community, and Adacore and others are committed to open source.
What is it for?
An Ada Resource Association survey found 34% of Ada applications
in embedded systems, 27% in command and control systems, and most
of the rest in tools, simulation projects and graphics.
Software company Adacore describes Ada as a classical
stack-based general-purpose language, not tied to any specific
development methodology, with a simple syntax, but with modern
features like encapsulation and modularisation, classes,
polymorphism, inheritance and dynamic binding.
Ada 83 was object oriented from the outset. But if an
application does not need object oriented programming, the object
oriented features do not have to be used, and there is no runtime
penalty. Ada also allows the developer to get close to the hardware
for systems programming. It supports event-driven, real-time
programming.
The language has other characteristics which enable it to meet
the demanding certification standards of defence agencies.
What makes it special?
The programmer community claims Ada offers safe and reliable
code with reduced development and certification costs, with support
for new and developing technologies (Ada 2005 has "Java-like
interfaces"). Ada code is portable. With safety-conscious
industries like aerospace dependent on it, Ada is stable and
robust.
How difficult is it to master?
Knowledge of "algorithmic" languages such as C/C++ or Pascal is
an asset. Ada is said to be easier to learn than any of these.
Where is it used?
Sectors currently looking for Ada specialists include avionics,
security and real-time embedded systems companies.
What systems does it run on?
Windows, Unix, Linux, OpenVMS and others.
What is coming up?
Ada software companies and suppliers of the public licence Gnat
Ada compiler are implementing Ada 2005 features in their
products.
Rates of pay
Junior Ada developers start on about £25,000, rising to £40,000+
with experience. You may need UML or another modelling/design
methodology. Many defence-related jobs also require security
clearance.
Training
There is a lot of Ada tutorial material available free on the
web. See in particular Lovelace, which like others, includes one
directed at people with a C/C++ background. Searching using "Public
Ada Library" will find you tools, tutorials and other resources
which, like the Gnat (GNU/NYU Ada 95 Translator) compiler, are open
source. Some of this material may appear dated, but remember that
Ada 95 is still the most widely used version.
See also the Ada UK User Group
website/ www.the-training-centre.co.uk/
Adaxia/AdaUKHome.html
www.adahome.com
/Tutorials