> Since this was written in 1997 and C, C++, and Java have all evolved considerably since then (And Ada?) I'd be interested to see an updated version of this.

Ada has seen 2 major updates to its standard -- the Ada 2005 and Ada 2012 standards.

> Also, I remember hearing/reading somewhere, possible in a class I took on compilers, that the Ada language was so complex that it very likely would never have completed development if it were not backed by the government.

There's a lot of weird myths floating about about the complexity of Ada. By the standards of the early 80s its certainly somewhat more complex than, say, C or Pascal, but it's orders of magnitude less complex than the C++ standard, and certainly easier to parse and compile. By modern standards its certainly a simpler language than Java.