From: alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: ASIS (Was Re: IrisAda) REPOST - REFORMATTED FOR 80 char display
Date: 22 Jan 93 21:07:11 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

Someone pointed out that my last few posts assumed wide displays
and were hard to read on 80 char devices.  This is the same text as before 
simply reformatted to fit on a narrow screen.
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In article <C16CKG.Eq8@inews.Intel.COM> csripras@hopi.intel.com (Chak Sriprasad) writes: 
> IrisAda translates Ada programs into Iris, a semantically-based
> internal form. It was listed by a company called Incremental Systems 
> Corporation in Pittsburgh. When I called the listed number I get the
> message that it is disconnected with no further information available.
> Does anyone have any information on this tool?

Another alternative you may consider is ASIS, the Ada Semantic
Interface Specification.  ASIS is intended to provide a standard
interface to the compiled representation in an Ada library for tool
builders and others.  The ASIS working group charter was accepted by
SigAda recently as an official SigAda working group.  The current ASIS
specification (version 1.0) is available from ajpo.sei.cmu.edu.  It
draws heavily from Rational's LRM interfaces and is very easy to use.

There are 2 electronic mailing lists for ASIS - a low volume
information and announcement group and a higher volume issues group
which is a superset of the first.  asis-info@stars.reston.paramax.com
(ASIS Working Group Info) asis@stars.reston.paramax.com (ASIS Working
Group) add a -request before the @ to contact the list administrator
to join.  The next ASIS working group meeting is in February at
Telesoft's San Diego offices.

ASIS 1.1 which is currently a draft proposal is a (non radical)
evolution of 1.0, filling in some holes and documenting behavior more
rigorously.  ASIS 2.0 will support Ada9X and some version of ASIS 2.X
will hopefully be endorsed by international standards organizations.

Currently, Telesoft is the only vendor offering an ASIS interface as a
product I believe.  Rational LRM interfaces are very similar, and I
believe they will have an ASIS product soon.  Other vendors are either
working on them or watching developments.  The GNAT project seem to be
planning an ASIS interface, but they haven't made any formal
commitment to my knowledge (probably have the hands full at the
moment:) If you want it today, call Telesoft.

Both Telesoft and Rational have donated substantial time and money to
this effort, but other vendors have been paying attention.

In any case, if it is at all important to you to get access to
compiled Ada, contact your favorite compiler vendors and let them know
you want an ASIS interface.  This can benefit us all by making tools
possible (both technically and economically) that were not previously.
Even little tools that you whip up to support your projects
specialized needs - not just large generaly purpose CASE tools.  But
the compiler vendors may not invest if they don't believe their
customers care about this - the return seems remote to some - ASIS ->
tools available -> more compilers sold.  Once it catches on with the
major vendors as a standard and tools start to require it, the
remaining compiler vendors will have incentive to invest in ASIS.  So
if you want a large variety of high quality Ada support tools to
choose from, convince compiler vendor to implement ASIS - (possibly by
letting them know you would consider paying some reasonable amount for
it).

And if you (government people especially) want to really help Ada
succeed, fund ASIS development. This is a good example of where
government should be involved - a standardization process that will
benefit the entire Ada industry building infrastructure.  No one
vendor should set the standard for the others to follow, or be
expected to fund all the costs of the standard development (as opposed
to an implementation).  Private industry can share the costs, but the
government can really help Ada by spending a small amount to help ASIS
get off to a solid start.




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Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu   NeXT mail accepted


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Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu   NeXT mail accepted
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada