Interfacing

Ada is one of the few languages where interfacing is part of the language standard. The programmer can interface with other programming languages, or with the hardware.

Other programming languages

The language standard defines the interfaces for C, Cobol and Fortran. Of course any implementation might define further interfaces — GNAT for example defines an interface to C++.

Interfacing with other languages is actually provided by pragma Export, Import and Convention.

Hardware devices

Embedded programmers usually have to write device drivers. Ada provides extensive support for interfacing with hardware, like using representation clauses to specify the exact representation of types used by the hardware, or standard interrupt handling for writing Interrupt service routines.

See also