Archaeology for the Future - Ada on OpenVMS

This paper presents a project to make Ada available on all VMS platforms. The project is put in perspective within the broader framework of sustainable development cycles. We elaborate a proposal to revisit upward compatibility as a mode of temporal portability. The methods and tools used help to rethink archaeology as an image of intelligence in programming activity. The paper also highlights the similarities between the destinies of the Ada and VMS ecosystems.