Source of Tony Hoare's Ada speech

[Jon Jacky]

Ada language. He made them in a very conspicuous forum: his 1980 Turing
Award speech. The text of the speech has appeared in several places:

C.A.R. Hoare, "The emperor's old clothes," COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM, 24(2),
Feb. 1981, pps. 75 - 83. Also reprinted _The Ada Programming Language: A
Tutorial_, ed. by Sabina H. Saib and Robert E. Fritz, New York, IEEE, 1983, 48
7
- 495. No doubt also reprinted in the book, ACM Turing Award Lectures:
The First Twenty Years: 1966 - 1985, ACM Press/Addison Wesley 1987.

For those of you who just tuned in, Hoare said:

"I appeal to you, representatives of the programming profession of the United
States, and citizens concerned with the welfare and safety of your own country

and of mankind: Do not allow this (Ada) language in its present state to be
used in applications where reliability is critical, i.e., nuclear power
stations, cruise missiles, early warning systems, anti-ballistic missile
systems. The next rocket to go astray as a result of a programming language
error may not be an exploratory space rocket on a harmless trip to Venus: It
may be a nuclear warhead exploding over one of our own cities. An unreliable

programming language generating unreliable programs constitutes a far greater
risk to our environment and to our society than unsafe cars, toxic pesticides,

or accidents at nuclear power stations. Be vigilant to reduce that risk, not
to increase it."

As several others have noted in this newsgroup, Hoare's more recent writings
suggest he is no longer as alarmed about Ada as he was when he made that
speech. I expect many readers of this newsgroup would find it interesting
because it relates Hoare's experiences and opinions as one of the advisors who
participated in the Ada language specification process.

Jonathan Jacky j...@gaffer.rad.washington.edu
Radiation Oncology RC-08 voice: (206)-548-4117
University of Washington FAX: (206)-548-6218
Seattle, Washington 98195

[Pat Rogers]

In article <11...@june.cs.washington.edu>, j...@cs.washington.edu (Jon Jacky) writes:

> [yet another recitation of Hoare's OLD, superceded comments]

>
> As several others have noted in this newsgroup, Hoare's more recent writings
> suggest he is no longer as alarmed about Ada as he was when he made that
> speech. I expect many readers of this newsgroup would find it interesting
> because it relates Hoare's experiences and opinions as one of the advisors who
> participated in the Ada language specification process.
>

"No longer as alarmed" ??? If he says we can "... now look forward
to a rapid and widespread improvement in programming practice, both from those
who use the language, and those who study its concepts and structure." and
alludes to those who have the "privilege to use the language", I don't see
how he is alarmed at all!! Sounds pretty encouraged to me.

By the way, a number of people were advisors who participated in the
process, many hundreds in fact. The *design* however, according to the RM,
was done by 12 people, with significant inputs by 11 others. Hoare is
mentioned, along with a large number of others, as providing comments,
suggestions and criticisms. My point here is that Hoare was _not_ a design
team member who then bailed out of the project and wrote his 1980 speech
decrying the language (as implied by the last sentence above).

P Rogers
Software Arts and Sciences
pro...@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
"My comments _do_ reflect the opinions of the company."