# Return to Fantasy
**URL:** https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207
**Category:** General
**Tags:** ada
**Created:** [February 21, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207 "2026-02-21T14:26:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@g41797](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/g41797)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/1 "2026-02-21T14:26:57Z")
Hi everyone,
In the late 1970s, I heard stories about the colored statuettes and a new programming language.
For me, Ada became a professional fantasy, even without seeing a single line of code
But actually, I spent almost 50 happy years developing in ASM, Fortran, PLM/86, C, C++, C#, Go, and Zig.
Now, I want to return.
My last project, [tofu](https://github.com/g41797/tofu) is messaging for boring systems.
I would be very grateful if you could look at these three pages:
- [Overview](https://g41797.github.io/tofu/mds/overview/)
- [Mantra](https://g41797.github.io/tofu/mds/mantra/)
- [Thinking in messages](https://g41797.github.io/tofu/mds/thinking-in-messages/)
My questions:
- Does the tofu approach make sense for Ada developers?
- Does it contradict the way you already work?
- If I port this, what would prevent you from using it?
Thank you for your time.
---
### Author:  [@DirkCraeynest](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/DirkCraeynest)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 6:33pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/2 "2026-02-21T18:33:36Z")
> [@g41797](#):
>
> colored statuettes
What do you refer to?
---
### Author:  [@g41797](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/g41797)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/3 "2026-02-21T19:06:31Z")
AFAIR there were _stories_ that the Ada proposals were presented during discussions as _colored statuettes_
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### Author:  [@OneWingedShark](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/OneWingedShark)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 7:26pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/4 "2026-02-21T19:26:17Z")
> [@g41797](#):
>
> - Does the tofu approach make sense for Ada developers?
> - Does it contradict the way you already work?
> - If I port this, what would prevent you from using it?
I think it does make sense, though a lot of its ideas seem like they would be realized in `Task` and DSA — see [this](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/steps-to-implement-the-distributed-annex-from-scratch/4144) — and ruminate on it a bit: a real rewrite involves leveraging the special features of the new language, rather than just mere transliteration.
---
### Author:  [@g41797](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/g41797)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 7:42pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/5 "2026-02-21T19:42:15Z")
That’s the reason I avoided discussing the API and showed devs dialog instead
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### Author:  [@AdaOrbit](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/AdaOrbit)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/6 "2026-02-21T20:14:50Z")
Maybe this is what you meant?
> Refining the requirements phases:
>
> - Straw Man - 1975
>
> - Wooden Man - 1975
>
> - Tin Man - 1976
>
> - Iron Man - 1976 : 17 proposals, 4 selected : **«Green», «Red», «Blue», «Yellow»**
>
> - Steel Man - 1978 : «Green» [Cii-Honeywell Bull], «Red» [Intermetrix].
>
> - Pebble Man - 1978/1979
>
> 1979-05-02 : **«Green» won the competition**
>
> 1980 July: Definitive version proposed to ANSI
> 1980 December 10 — [MIL-STD-1815.](https://archive.org/details/mil-std-ada "View document at Archive.org") (Cf. Lady Ada birthday 1815-12-10)
> 1983 April — Awarded ANSI standard — Ada 83
> 1987 June — ISO Standard 8652
>
> [Jean Ichbiah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ichbiah "Jean Ichbiah on Wikipedia") (Designer of the **«Green Proposal» = Ada language** )
> **[History of the Ada programming language, and GNAT compiler](https://www.adaforge.org/Goodies/STD-MIL-1815_GNAT-project/)**
>
> AdaForge is the home of the brave Ada developer programming in the Ada language source code and searching free quality Open Source software libraries
---
### Author:  [@g41797](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/g41797)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/7 "2026-02-21T20:28:27Z")
**YES**
Thanks a lot!!!
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### Author:  [@DirkCraeynest](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/DirkCraeynest)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 11:00pm UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/8 "2026-02-21T23:00:16Z")
Color coded proposals (green, red, blue, yellow), not _statuettes_…
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### Author:  [@g41797](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/g41797)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2026, 2:21am UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/9 "2026-02-22T02:21:42Z")
Got it.
Didn’t realize it was folklore.
A bit sad — they were _beautiful stories_.
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### Author:  [@DirkCraeynest](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/DirkCraeynest)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2026, 6:59am UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/10 "2026-02-22T06:59:48Z")
You might be confusing the color coded language proposals, of which “green” became Ada, with the statuettes of Lady Ada Lovelace that ACM SIGAda handed out for their annual awards, see [ACM SIGAda Awards](https://www.sigada.org/exec/awards/awards.html) …
---
### Author:  [@kevlar700](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/kevlar700)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2026, 8:05am UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/11 "2026-02-24T08:05:22Z")
I had not heard of Pebble Man before.
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### Author:  [@Nordic\_Dogsledding](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/Nordic_Dogsledding)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2026, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/12 "2026-02-24T09:19:43Z")
Pebbleman was the first document about creating a software environment for Ada. Stoneman followed, but the program was dropped.
Initial Thoughts on the Pebbleman Process
David Fisher
> **[CM-P00068081.pdf](https://cds.cern.ch/record/125563/files/CM-P00068081.pdf)**
>
> 7.63 MB
See page 4 box 20 at the page end.
Also see
[https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-object-based-virtual-operating-system-for-the-Taft/d14bc2f0209e892787fab1c405a727f6e6f3f03b](https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-object-based-virtual-operating-system-for-the-Taft/d14bc2f0209e892787fab1c405a727f6e6f3f03b)
---
### Author:  [@DirkCraeynest](https://forum.ada-lang.io/u/DirkCraeynest)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2026, 9:49am UTC](https://forum.ada-lang.io/t/return-to-fantasy/4207/13 "2026-02-24T09:49:23Z")
The above is slightly confusing, because there were 2 different sequences of requirements documents: one for the language (Strawman, Woodenman, Tinman, Ironman, Steelman) and another for a development environment (Sandman, Pebbleman, Stoneman), between 1975 and 1980.
For extensive information on the Ada design process, see “Ada - The Project, The DoD High Order Language Working Group” by William A. Whitaker at [1], originally published in ACM SIGPLAN Notices (Vol. 28, No. 3, March 1993).
[1] [Ada - DoD HOLWG, Col Wm Whitaker, 1993](http://archive.adaic.com/pol-hist/history/holwg-93/holwg-93.htm)