Pain and triumph: lessons learned from converting or interfacing other languages into Ada

The author surveys some of the lessons learned in conversion projects for FORTRAN and BASIC into Ada, and in interfacing FORTRAN into Ada. He discusses design issues to be explored and resolved before coding begins. In general, problems will be found not in the control constructs of the languages (loops, IF-THEN statements, error exception handling) but in the representation of data types, and, to a lesser extent, the mathematical operations performed on various types. Examples show what to look for during design to prevent pitfalls encountered during coding and testing. Some solutions may require debugger analysis, while others may be implemented with specific coding practice (hence making the Ada host-specific)