[said Scott]
>
> Mike,
>
> This list you have posted is significant.  It drives home a very important fact
> that is seldom said in so few words.  Ada is being used in many significant
> applications in many industries.  This says that Ada is (and will remain) a good
> language choice for significant applications.  It will also serve to quell fears
> that support for Ada tools and finding software engineers with Ada experience
> will be a future problem.  I know of no other source of information that can say
> this without great length and detail.
>
> Regards,
> Scott Edgerton
>
Scott et al,

I really appreciate the good words. I've had a number of responses and
tips since I posted this just a few days ago, and I've already re-posted
updated several times since then.

For a while I kept this list to send out by e-mail, and only recently
got around to putting it on the web. I was also a bit reluctant to
do so, because I can't cite sources for many of the projects mentioned.
As you know, I'm a college professor, and in my profession we are
obsessive about citing our sources. We're conditioned to think that
anything unattributable is worthless.

In putting this list together, I feel more like an investigative
journalist, often taking tips from sources I promise not to identify
publicly. I do my best to assess the credibility of my sources,
at least to assure myself that I am not posting any bullsh*t in
a public place.

I'm grateful to the many Team-ers and others who have provided the
info in this page; I promise to update it promptly as I get more
listings. Also let me say I'm happy about the growing number of
project references and abstracts that are turning up on the sites
of our compiler vendors, especially ACT, DDC-I, and Rational.
(Rational now has 4 Ada-related case studies on their site - we are
all hoping to see more!) I think I've linked to all the relevant
places there.

I guess it's a tribute to the real commercial success of Ada that
so many companies refuse to discuss any details of their projects,
in some cases refusing even to be named. That said, it's still a
shame that we have to contend with the same old Catch-22 that
causes decision-makers to avoid Ada because "nobody else is using it."
Yet those who are using it must keep that fact secret because of
commercial pressures.

And as an educator, I have to deal with the same Catch-22 in a
different form: educators avoid Ada there are no Ada jobs, employers
avoid Ada because there are insufficient Ada-savvy graduates.
In truth, there are both jobs and graduates, but - as always in
this crazy industry - perception is reality.

Well, we all must do what we can to break the tight loop, and
I hope this page will get wide enough visibility to encourage
others to keep it growing.

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks.:-)

Cheers,

Mike Feldman