On the use of Ada in computer-aided engineering

The author discusses the suitability of Ada for non-real-time computer-aided control engineering (CACE) projects, based on experiences gained during the design and implementation of the CACE program IMPACT. After a brief introduction to Ada and IMPACT, and a general discussion of the Ada language, the suitability of Ada in CACE is discussed in some detail. Particular attention is given to features such as abstract data types, generic templating, object-oriented programming, and error handling. Software engineering facets, quality aspects, and efficiency problems are also considered. A tabular comparison between Ada and alternative languages is given.<
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