Complementing Ada with other programming languages

Samuel Tardieu, Alexis Polti

Abstract: This paper presents our experience in using Ada and the Ravenscar profile in a robotics non-profit association and in a robotics competition. While Ada is our primary and dominant language, we have complemented it with a hardware description language (Verilog) and an interactive language (Forth). We describe the interface between those languages, and the design choices that have been made to minimize the risks taken by leaving the Ada world. We also explain why we chose in some conditions to relax restrictions imposed by the use of the Ravenscar profile.