A Comparison of Ada 83 and C++

Weiderman, N.

Special Report
CMU/SEI-91-SR-004

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The purpose of this report is to provide technical input to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Communications, Computers, and Logistics to assist that office in preparing a business case for using Ada or C++ to develop Corporate Information Management (CIM) systems. This technical input has been gathered by using the comparison methodology of a 1985 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report as a model, as well as by conducting interviews with experts in Ada and C++. The conclusion of this report is that technically neither language is clearly better than the other; for government use, however, there is clear justification and rationale for using Ada rather than C++ for large complex systems with long lifetimes.