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"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Thu, 2 Nov 2000 13:39:31 -0500
Reply-To:
Michael Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
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Michael Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
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<[log in to unmask]> from "W. Wesley Groleau x4923" at Nov 02, 2000 01:08:08 PM
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said Wes:
>
> 1. They decided to convert other things from C to Ada because of how well
>    this went.
>
> 2. They suggested that U.S. industry do the same.

Yep. DDC-I is one oft he better vendors in their willingness to admit
they do Ada and put project briefs on their website.
>
> Honorable mention: "... nary a ripple in your glass of Bordeaux..."
> (And nary a Beaujolais in sight?)
>
Indeed. Anyone who's ridden the TGV has experienced this (I have,
several times on 3 different TGV lines.) OTOH, this has much more to
do with the _zillions_ the French spend on track maintenance, and the
fact that no freight trains ride and pound the TGV lines, than the
precise nature of the software.

By the way - a TGV locomotive derailed recently, somewhere in
Belgium or Northern France. The train was traveling at over 250 km/h (!)
and presumably took a good few km to skid to a stop, but it remained
upright and nobody was seriously injured.

The French credit this to the fact that the whole set of coaches is
"articulated", that is, two adjacent cars share a truck (set of wheels)
between them. In other train designs, a single car derailing can swerve
and pull the others over, but the articulated set has remarkable
stability.

This is of interest for Amtrak fans - the new "Acela Express" trains
have TGV-based locomotives, but traditional separately-coupled
coaches of Canadian design.  Current Amtrak plan is to start operating
these trains (at 150 mph max) in November between Boston and Washington.

I'm still trying to find out whether the TGV-based Acela locomotives are
"powered by Ada." I seem to recall an authoritative source telling me
the Amtrak signaling system is _not_.

But there's still a possibility in the onboard loco controls. That DDC-I
article focuses on the onboard software, not the signaling.

(If anyone has a source on this, please let me know!)

Mike

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