I'm one of those people that think LISP is the most powerful language ever designed. Best for exploratory programming. Ada is best for mission-critical stuff being among the safest. While LISP didn't mainstream, Python did by emulating the right aspects of LISP without its issues. Coverity reported it had an extremely low defect rate, too. It's also great for maintainable, fairly-reliable, productive code. Yet, most installs still depend on unsafe code in interpreter and libraries.
So, what do you people think about doing a Python implementation in a combo of Ada and SPARK? Everything is done using robust, structured programming style with Design by Contract and all checks enabled by default. A given set of checks can be disabled if SPARK or another tool proves absence of that problem. Ada's tasking or (even better) the SCOOP model can give it real concurrency. The standard library features can be as safe or fast as necessary with Ada-grade interface protections and typing. OS-specific details will be abstracted away in order to port it to a low-TCB, microkernel OS or MirageOS-style Xen guest in the future.
The result should be as usable as Python, work about as fast, be more maintainable, and have fewer implementation risks. I'd also probably implement one of the Python compilers in Ada for performance boosts. Anyone think this is a project worth pushing on academics or FOSS?
So, what do you people think about doing a Python implementation in a combo of Ada and SPARK? Everything is done using robust, structured programming style with Design by Contract and all checks enabled by default. A given set of checks can be disabled if SPARK or another tool proves absence of that problem. Ada's tasking or (even better) the SCOOP model can give it real concurrency. The standard library features can be as safe or fast as necessary with Ada-grade interface protections and typing. OS-specific details will be abstracted away in order to port it to a low-TCB, microkernel OS or MirageOS-style Xen guest in the future.
The result should be as usable as Python, work about as fast, be more maintainable, and have fewer implementation risks. I'd also probably implement one of the Python compilers in Ada for performance boosts. Anyone think this is a project worth pushing on academics or FOSS?