The AdaOS Operating System (2000) • Hacker News Board

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#11

Post by projektfu » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #8

kpU8efre7r wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? I just left a job in defense software that used Ada and it was a fairly new program.

So we agree. It never went anywhere => ie. it never left. Still used for what it was used => ie. the same kind of software (defense, etc).

I also misread that as “never took off”.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#12

Post by jki275 » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:27 PM UTC

kpU8efre7r wrote: post #7

coldtea wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It never went anywhere, still used for what it was used...

What? I just left a job in defense software that used Ada and it was a fairly new program.

Interesting to hear that. DOD no longer requires ADA, so many projects that did use it have converted to C++. There were even people brought in to do automated Ada-> C++ conversion a number of years ago.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#13

Post by mpiedrav » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:30 PM UTC

im_down_w_otp wrote: post #5

sqldba wrote: post #3

Is Ada still around?

Yes. It's often used in safety-critical systems as an alternative to C, though C is still significantly more common.

Ada, Fortran, and even Cobol, satisfy the needs of a given domain: safety-critical environments for Ada, scientific computing for Fortran, business transactions for Cobol.

They won't be replaced in the next decades, and even some new systems might be implemented in them.

Languages for production were often designed to address a set of (hard) problems, as opposed to general-purpose languages (Python, Java, C++, etc.)

Sure, there are some web servers/apps written in Fortran or Ada. But those are examples of what the languages can achieve, not how they are actually used in production.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#14

Post by thesuperbigfrog » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:34 PM UTC

The biggest issue with all of these "write a new operating system in my favorite language X" (where X is Ada, C, C++, D, Rust, etc) is that in almost all cases the operating system design slowly morphs into a buggy, half-baked version of an existing operating system. Rarely are there compelling new designs that are sufficiently better than what currently exists or was previously created in a different programming language.

While a different programming language can enable different levels of expressiveness, elegance, or nuance of control when interacting with hardware, ultimately it is the higher-level design concepts and design maturity that come into focus over time. (Does the design work in the real world? Is it "battle tested" and can address / overcome various failure modes?)

These forces have shaped the operating systems that we have today into what they are through years of heat and pressure. If you are contemplating writing a new operating system in your favorite language X, take a few years to study and understand how current operating systems solve real world problems and ask yourself how your ideas / designs will be as good as or better than what currently exists.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#15

Post by tornato7 » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

vips7L wrote: post #9

peter_d_sherman wrote: post #2

https://sourceforge.net/projects/adaos/files/

Why is sourceforge's ui so bad? Why not display the files instead of expecting me to download some random zip file?

Sourceforge isn't a reputable website anymore. They have been known for bundling spyware/crapware with their installers of open source software.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#16

Post by dwheeler » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:48 PM UTC

tornato7 wrote: post #15

vips7L wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is sourceforge's ui so bad? Why not display the files instead of expecting me to download some random zip file?

Sourceforge isn't a reputable website anymore. They have been known for bundling spyware/crapware with their installers of open source software.

That certainly happened, but as far as I can tell they stopped that years ago. It hurt their reputation immensely, though.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#17

Post by tedunangst » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:54 PM UTC

peter_d_sherman wrote: post #2

https://sourceforge.net/projects/adaos/files/

136.4KB is quite the tiny OS.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#18

Post by boznz » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 6:59 PM UTC

sqldba wrote: post #3

Is Ada still around?

A Lot of older languages like ADA are still around, up to date and have surprisingly active and friendly communities. The health and state of any language should probably not be judged by how popular or how often it is mentioned on hacker news.

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#19

Post by joubert » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

sqldba wrote: post #3

Is Ada still around?

Yes. Latest language standard is Ada 2012.

Spark, a subset of Ada 2012 supports formal proofs of program properties ranging from absence of run-time errors to functional correctness (compliance of the code with formally specified requirements).

If you're curious, you can learn more at https://learn.adacore.com/courses/courses.html

Re: The AdaOS Operating System (2000)

#20

Post by vwuon » Sun, Nov 03, 2019, 7:24 PM UTC

vips7L wrote: post #9

peter_d_sherman wrote: post #2

https://sourceforge.net/projects/adaos/files/

Why is sourceforge's ui so bad? Why not display the files instead of expecting me to download some random zip file?

That's what the owner of the project uploaded. Sourceforge allows you to host repositories like github/etc, but the repo of this project is empty: https://sourceforge.net/p/adaos/code/ref/master/