Foreword

I am delighted to write these words of introduction to this important document which accompanies the new Ada International Standard. It is most satisfying to see the efforts of all those involved with the language revision effort bearing fruit, and I am very confident that Ada 95 will prove to be a worthy successor to Ada 83, extending Ada's Software Engineering advantages to new user communities. With modern features such as Object-Oriented Programming and enhanced interfacing capabilities, Ada 95 will enable the flexible and reliable development of major applications in the coming years.

The new standard, officially ISO/IEC 8652:1995, thus marks an important milestone in Ada's history. Enormous contributions from some of the world's finest software engineers and programming language experts have gone into the revision effort, reflecting both current and anticipated user requirements. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the sterling efforts of all those involved in developing the new standard and in writing this rationale document.

The Ada 95 language revision was prepared by the Ada 9X Design Team based at Intermetrics, Inc., under the direction of William Carlson, Program Manager, and S. Tucker Taft, Technical Director. The Intermetrics team included Robert Duff (Oak Tree Software) and also consultants John Barnes, Ben Brosgol, and Offer Pazy.

A team led by John Goodenough (SEI) prepared the technical requirements specification for the Ada revision, based on preliminary work by the Institute for Defense Analyses under Audrey Hook to analyze the more than 750 revision requests submitted by the Ada community.

The following consultants to the Ada 9X Project contributed to the Specialized Needs Annexes: Ted Baker (SEI, Florida State Univ.), Ken Dritz (Argonne National Laboratory), Anthony Gargaro (Computer Sciences Corp.), John Goodenough (SEI), John McHugh (consultant), and Brian Wichmann (NPL: UK).

This work was regularly reviewed by the Ada 9X Distinguished Reviewers and the members of the ISO Ada 9X Rapporteur Group (XRG): Erhard Ploedereder, Chairman of DRs and XRG (University of Stuttgart: Germany); B. Bardin (Hughes); J. Barnes (consultant: UK); B. Brett (DEC); B. Brosgol (consultant); R. Brukardt (RR Software); N. Cohen (IBM); R. Dewar (NYU); G. Dismukes (Alsys [Telesoft]); A. Evans (consultant); A. Gargaro (Computer Sciences Corp.); M. Gerhardt (ESL); J. Goodenough (SEI); S. Heilbrunner (University of Salzburg: Austria); P. Hilfinger (UC/Berkeley); B. Kallberg (CelsiusTech: Sweden); M. Kamrad II (Unisys); J. van Katwijk (Delft University of Technology: The Netherlands); V. Kaufman (Russia); P. Kruchten (Rational); R. Landwehr (CCI: Germany); C. Lester (Portsmouth Polytechnic: UK); L. Mansson (TELIA Research: Sweden); S. Michell (Multiprocessor Toolsmiths: Canada); M. Mills (US Air Force); D. Pogge (US Navy); K. Power (Boeing); O. Roubine (Verdix: France); A. Strohmeier (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology: Switzerland); W. Taylor (consultant: UK); J. Tokar (Tartan); E. Vasilescu (Grumman); J. Vladik (Prospeks s.r.o.: Czech Republic); S. Van Vlier- berghe (OFFIS: Belgium).

Early contributors on the Ada 9X Design Team were C. Garrity, R. Hilliard, D. Rosenfeld, L. Shafer, W. White, and M. Woodger. Other valuable feedback influencing the revision process was provided by the Ada 9X Language Precision Team (Odyssey Research Associates), the Ada 9X User/Implementer Teams (AETECH, Tartan, Alsys [Telesoft]), the Ada 9X Implementation Analysis Team (New York University), and the Volunteer Reviewers group under Art Evans (consultant).

The principal authors of this rationale document were John Barnes and Ben Brosgol with valuable contributions from Ken Dritz, Offer Pazy and Brian Wichmann. Many thanks also to Bill Taylor for providing the material upon which Appendix X is based, and to Tucker Taft and Robert Duff for their comments and review.

Very special thanks go to Virginia Castor, John Solomond and Don Reifer from the Ada Joint Program Office for supporting and sponsoring the Ada 9X Project since its inception, and to Bob Mathis, Convenor of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 Working Group 9, for shepherding the revision through the standardization process.

Last but not least, I want to extend my sincerest appreciation to the Ada community at large who have volunteered their time and energy on this project. Without your support we would not have been able to succeed.

Ada 95 is here. It is now up to the users, both those who have appreciated the engineering benefits of Ada 83 and others who may be frustrated with the hazards of their current techniques, to move forward and reap the benefits of this new language.