At 03:45 PM 10/30/98 +0900, Yong-suk Suh wrote:

>Can ISO assure the Ada95 can be used in mission-critical system for
>example, Nuclear, Millitary, etc?

    ISO as such can't, you have to develop a plan (usually called a
software development plan) for your project that meets the appropriate
standards.  The Ada standard is designed to support this, but you need
to choose a compiler, and decide which features (especially those in Annex
H: Safety and Security) are appropriate in your application.

>What test suits did ISO develope to assure the reliability of the Ada95?

    There are two major test suites, neither developed by ISO.  The most
important is the ACVC Ada Compiler Validation Capability.  This test that
the compiler conforms to the standard.  The other important suite is ACES,
Ada Compiler Evaluation Suite used to determine performance.  There are also
dozens of other specialized test suites available.

>Did you define critical characteristics of the Ada95 to establish its
>acceptance criteria?

   Yes, but that doesn't let you off the hook.  Ada 95 is designed to support
lots of classes of applications with different requirements and goals, on a
large safety-critical project, you need to decide what features you need, and
which are too risky in your environment.

   For example, if you are in a "hard real-time" environment, where deadlines
are measured in milliseconds or sometimes microseconds, you need to insure
that
performance is predicatable, and garbage collection not under the programmer's
control is right out.  However, in another situation, you might need software
to run unattended for years, so you have to guard against storage leaks and
fragmentation.  In that environment, a compacting garbage collector could be
exactly what you need.

                                        Robert I. Eachus

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