Inventor of Ada language dies
February 2, 2007I spent a few years (back when I had a full head of hair) working for various aerospace contractors. So I’ve done more than my fair share of Ada programming. It’s been quite a few years since I have touched it though–I threw out all my Ada books when I was packing up to move here to Louisville three years ago. At the time I probably hadn’t cracked any of them open in six or seven years. So it’s been maybe a decade since I last used Ada.
But I do remember the language fondly. My favorite feature was probably the strong typing– no way to mess up and accidentally assign a character to an integer. Second was probably the runtime exception handling– no accidentally walking off the end of an array like you can do in C or C++.
So it was with great sadness that I saw the obituary for Jean Ichbiah, who led the effort that created Ada. I never met the man but his work definitely influenced my life.
My condolences to his family and friends.