Ada Resource Association

Part 1 of this three-part article reviews the basics of object-oriented programming and summarizes the challenges it presents for high-integrity programming.

We are used to software that dismally fails. What is surprising is that we accept this as reasonable. It is time to stand up and say we are not going to put up with this anymore. There is no excuse for junk software.

Software is playing an expanding role in modern medical devices, raising the question of how developers, regulators, medical professionals, and patients can be confident in the devices’ reliability, safety, and security. Software- related errors in medical equipment have caused people’s deaths in the past, so the issue is not simply theoretical.

Professors and students at Vermont Technical College are using AdaCore’s GNAT Ada development environment and Altran Praxis’ SPARK tools to implement two NASA-sponsored programs, including a CubeSat.

Static and dynamic code analysis can improve application performance, safety and reliability by identifying problems early in the development cycle if the proper tools and procedures are used from the start. Dr. Mike Hennell, founder of LDRA, spoke with me about the various aspects of these types of tools.

Software engineers who specialize in mission-critical applications are gearing up for the release of an update to DO-178B safety-critical software certification standard in the form of DO-178C, which accommodates modern software engineering technologies such as formal methods and object-oriented programming.

AdaCore’s GNAT Ada development environment and Altran Praxis’ SPARK tools are being used at Vermont Technical College during the implementation of two NASA-sponsored programs: continued work on a CubeSat and development of an Arctic Sea Ice Buoy.

With the geometric growth in software size and complexity, avionics manufacturers are losing control of project schedules and budgets. Consequently, the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) hopes to address software development challenges through DO-178C – a new standard that embraces contemporary technologies and methodologies necessary to achieve these aims.

After five years, RTCA and EUROCAE, the U.S. and European avionics standards organizations, are nearing the finish line in updating DO-178B, the bible for developers of safety-critical software. A cast of 1,000-plus people have observed or participated in the process and about 100 people show up at every meeting, according to one member of RTCA Special Committee 205 (SC-205). The industry expects the final package — DO-178C — to be released in the first quarter of 2011 and be mandated six to nine months after ratification.

A thread on the SoftTalk blog discusses Ada and multicore programming along with other Ada topics in the comments section.