Ada'95: Hypertext Guidelines

Ada95 has many features that satisfy the requirements of high integrity software development, but also contains several features that do not. To use Ada95 successfully in high integrity systems, it is necessary to eliminate those language features, or to restrict the combination of features, to achieve the desired results. By eliminating and restricting these features, one achieves a language suitable for the development of high integrity systems. This restricted language retains most of the support for good software engineering practice while eliminating those features or combinations of features that impede the predictability, analyzability, or traceability of programs.

The Guidelines are the culmination of a detailed analysis of Ada with respect to these criteria. Feature by feature, the guidelines show what to strive for and what to avoid. Prohibitions are backed up by reference to the detailed analysis that illustrates potential difficulties. Approaches for safely working around the prohibitions are shown when possible, and enforcement mechanisms discussed.

The hypertext edition of the Guidelines provides links to supporting data, to the Ada Reference Manual, and to cross references, providing an ideal resource for developers of high integrity systems.

The hypertext edition of the Guidelines are available online. File README.txt contains instructions for downloading and installing. Windows users should get adaweb.zip; Unix user should get the gzipped tar archive adaweb.tgz instead.