SPARK

Ada and SPARK-Ada interface for OpenComRTOS Designer 

Ada has a long history. Originally developed in the late 70's on request of the US DoD, it became available with a certified compiler in 1983. While the language had as goal to improve the quality of software, in its striving to be complete (procedural, object-oriented, modularity, concurrent tasking and many more features), it was complex and fairly heavy to use. Nevertheless, it was and still is the language of choice for large safety critical applications, especially when large teams are involved. Its complexity, the steep pricing for the tools and its lower performance inhibited its wider use. Hence C compilers offering often better performance and more control over the hardware gradually became the compiler of choice even if thelanguage has many safety issues. Ironically, VHDL which is a widely used programming language to develop hardware circuits heavily borrowed fromAda.