Definition: ada

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (2003-OCT-10)

Ada

   <language> (After Ada Lovelace) A Pascal-descended
   language, designed by Jean Ichbiah's team at CII Honeywell
   in 1979, made mandatory for Department of Defense software
   projects by the Pentagon.  The original language was
   standardised as "Ada 83", the latest is "Ada 95".

   Ada is a large, complex, block-structured language aimed
   primarily at embedded applications.  It has facilities for
   real-time response, concurrency, hardware access and
   reliable run-time error handling.  In support of large-scale
   software engineering, it emphasises strong typing, data
   abstraction and encapsulation.  The type system uses name
   equivalence and includes both subtypes and derived types.
   Both fixed and floating-point numerical types are supported.

   Control flow is fully bracketed: if-then-elsif-end if,
   case-is-when-end case, loop-exit-end loop, goto.  Subprogram
   parameters are in, out, or inout.  Variables imported from
   other packages may be hidden or directly visible.  Operators
   may be overloaded and so may enumeration literals.  There
   are user-defined exceptions and exception handlers.

   An Ada program consists of a set of packages encapsulating
   data objects and their related operations.  A package has a
   separately compilable body and interface.  Ada permits
   generic packages and subroutines, possibly parametrised.

   Ada support single inheritance, using "tagged types" which
   are types that can be extended via inheritance.

   Ada programming places a heavy emphasis on multitasking.
   Tasks are synchronised by the rendezvous, in which a task
   waits for one of its subroutines to be executed by another.
   The conditional entry makes it possible for a task to test
   whether an entry is ready.  The selective wait waits for
   either of two entries or waits for a limited time.

   Ada is often criticised, especially for its size and
   complexity, and this is attributed to its having been designed
   by committee.  In fact, both Ada 83 and Ada 95 were designed
   by small design teams to be internally consistent and tightly
   integrated.  By contrast, two possible competitors, Fortran
   90 and C++ have both become products designed by large and
   disparate volunteer committees.

   See also Ada/Ed, Toy/Ada.

   Home of the Brave Ada Programmers.  Ada FAQs (hypertext), text only.

   http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/languages/ada/,
   ftp://ajpo.sei.cmu.edu/,
   ftp://stars.rosslyn.unisys.com/pub/ACE_8.0.

   E-mail: <adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu>.

   Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.ada.

   An Ada grammar including a lex
   scanner and yacc parser is available.  E-mail:
   <masticol@dumas.rutgers.edu>.

   Another yacc grammar and parser for Ada by Herman Fischer.

   An LR parser and pretty-printer for Ada from NASA is
   available from the Ada Software Repository.

   Adamakegen generates makefiles for Ada programs.

   ["Reference Manual for the Ada Programming Language", ANSI/MIL
   STD 1815A, US DoD (Jan 1983)].  Earlier draft versions
   appeared in July 1980 and July 1982.  ISO 1987.

   [Jargon File]

   (2000-08-12)

Ada++

   <language> An object-oriented extension to Ada,
   implemented as an Ada preprocessor.  Obsoleted by Ada 95
   which includes object-oriented features.

   [Jargon File]

   (1995-09-19)

Source: V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms December 2001

ADA
        Automatic Data Acquisitions

Source: Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

Ada n. A Pascal-descended language that was at one time made
   mandatory for Department of Defense software projects by the Pentagon.
   Hackers are nearly unanimous in observing that, technically, it is
   precisely what one might expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat;
   designed by committee, crockish, difficult to use, and overall a
   disastrous, multi-billion-dollar boondoggle (one common description was
   "The PL/I of the 1980s"). Hackers find Ada's exception-handling and
   inter-process communication features particularly hilarious. Ada
   Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who became the world's first
   programmer while cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his
   mechanical computing engines in the mid-1800s) would almost certainly
   blanch at the use to which her name has latterly been put; the kindest
   thing that has been said about it is that there is probably a good small
   language screaming to get out from inside its vast, elephantine bulk.

Source: U.S. Gazetteer (1990)

Ada, KS
  Zip code(s): 67414
Ada, MI
  Zip code(s): 49301
Ada, MN (city, FIPS 172)
  Location: 47.29952 N, 96.51393 W
  Population (1990): 1708 (881 housing units)
  Area: 3.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Ada, OH (village, FIPS 198)
  Location: 40.76884 N, 83.82386 W
  Population (1990): 5413 (1857 housing units)
  Area: 4.0 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
  Zip code(s): 45810
Ada, OK (city, FIPS 200)
  Location: 34.77701 N, 96.66041 W
  Population (1990): 15820 (7602 housing units)
  Area: 33.1 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
  Zip code(s): 74820