Track 4 background and purpose

摘要

Track 4 (Ada in Practice) was instituted as part of TRI-Ada '89 because few formal paper submissions had dealt with lessons learned from actual Ada usage in real-world, for-profit projects. The success of Track 4 sessions at TRI-Ada '89 led to continuation this year. The purpose of Track 4 is in-depth presentation of Ada development efforts from the perspective of systems engineering, software engineering, design, compiler implementations, tool capabilities/deficiencies, personnel, and policy decisions/rationale. The focus is on aggregate project decisions, tradeoffs, and rationale. Track 4 also differs from other conference sessions in that each presentation is 90 minutes long and extensive audience interaction is a part of each session.

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The Track 4 concept acknowledges that the current "system" for writing and clearing papers may place obstacles in the way of obtaining papers which are reflective of real experience. For example,rn

personnel in front-line positions on critical programs are generally too busy to generate formal papers;

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the DoD/contractor approval cycle must be complied with, and

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companies must deal with the issue of competition sensitivity when putting activities and decisions into a formally written paper.

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Rather than describing programs, Track 4 presentations focus very strongly on alternatives/rationale for design decisions; in other words, the "why," not the "what." Track 4 presentations are selected based on the degree to which they contain specific rationale for decisions on the following subjects:rn

Difficulties encountered

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Substantive technical issues

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Quantitative system data

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Hardware architecture

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Software architecture

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Tradeoffs among hardware, systems software and applications software

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System size and complexity determination

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Compilerand tool problems

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Usefulness of management techniques

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Why Ada was beneficialot beneficial

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What would be done differently next time

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Each Track 4 presentation is the result of cooperative effort between the selected project and a member of the TRI-Ada '90 staff known as a rapporteur. The rapporteur works with the project over a period of months to:rn

optimize the presentation's targeting of the criteria for these high-potential sessions,

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insure the potential for audience interaction,

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and moderate the session at the conference

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The success of Track 4 sessions is, in no small part, due to the work of the rapporteurs; their efforts are hereby acknowledged.