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Comment by tombert | Hacker News Reader

I've never used Ada, and I also don't really do systems stuff, but it does seem like it's a pretty neat language, at least compared to C. From what I have seen, it looks like it has better memory guarantees while still being fast and low-level.

With be the popularity of Rust, it makes me kind of wonder why Ada isn't more popular. I should give the language a go.

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There wasn't an open source compiler from the beginning, and thus a lot of the compilers where expensive. You could only use the language in an awful legacy setting behind a wall of NDAs and security clearances. Not my experience, just a bunch comments on HN of actual retired Ada devs on why the language didn't take when I was researching the language.

Adacore in the last few years have been investing heavily in modernizing the tool chain, but now it seems they are also investing in Rust.

This is true, I've worked on a actively maintained Ada codebase in aerospace industry and we had to use a proprietary Ada Xd compiler that was being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars per installation by company not interested in doing any updates, that came with a phonebook-size paper errata of known bugs.

>> Adacore in the last few years have been investing heavily in modernizing the tool chain, but now it seems they are also investing in Rust.

Adacore is working with Ferrous Systems on Ferrocene (https://ferrous-systems.com/ferrocene/), a Rust toolchain for use on safety critical applications:

https://blog.adacore.com/announcing-publication-of-the-draft...

https://ferrous-systems.com/blog/ferrous-systems-adacore-joi...

I am hoping that Ferrocene's work will help the drive the standardization of Rust over the next few years:

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/113527

> With be the popularity of Rust, it makes me kind of wonder why Ada isn't more popular.

It looks like Ada is having a resurgence due to Rust. I see Ada being pushed alongside Rust in a lot of places that emphasize safety.

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