HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nelsonb@oodis01.af.mil (Contractor Bert Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Pentagon opens software reuse center-- Access??
Date: 30 Jul 92 20:22:25 GMT
Organization: Hill AFB, Utah


          

The following is an excerpt from ComputerWorld July 27 issue, page 21.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- The U.S Department of Defense (DOD) laid a cornerstone in
its huge Corporate Information Management (CIM) program last week when it
opened its Center for Software Reuse Operations.

  The center provides access to the Pentagon's new Defense Software Repository,
which contains 2.2 million lines of Cobol and Ada code in 1,531 reusable
software modules.

  The software, mosty for financial and logistics application at present is
avaialbe to users throughout the department and to DOD contractors via an
automated catalog and retrieval system.  "We're open for business.  The
software is available," said William Galler, deputy program manager for
software reuse at the Defense Information Systems Agency.

  The repository was stocked initially with software taken form the U.S.
Army's Reusable Ada Producst for Information System Development system, which
last week won a "golden nugget" award for excellence from CIM director Paul A.
Strassmann.

My question is ... How can I look at this code?  Is it available via FTP?


Bert Nelson
Synergy, Inc.
Hill Air Force Base
nelsonb@oodis01.af.mil
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: pbaker@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Paul Baker - CTA)
Subject: Re: Object Oriented Ada Preprocessors
Keywords: OOPS, Ada++, DRAGOON, Classic-Ada, InnovAda
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 92 15:39:33 GMT

At CTA, I developed an object-oriented extension to Ada.  The
original project was NASA-funded and produced an Ada graphics
system with single inheritance.  This project predated X Windows,
and using Ada was, therefore, necessary.  But when you compare
the Ada approach with the approach X took with C, it seems plain
that Ada can yield a cleaner, simpler coding system for graphics.
With inheritance, of course.

I added inheritance using Ada as its own preprocessor language
(see Ada Letters Vol. X, No. 1, pg. 83 (1990)).  This approach
has the advantage that only Ada is used and all code is verified
by the Ada compiler. Also the programmer's Ada experience is
reused by sticking with a consistent language environment, and
programmers can retain the use of whatever support tools they find
effective.

Recently, this work was revisited and a complete system was
produced that has multiple inheritance and the option to use
concurrent objects.  In this latter respect, the Ada system pulls
ahead of even C++. That extension I owe to Phil Brashaer.  

The object oriented system was intended as 1) the basis for
potential contract work and 2) the center of a distributed,
persistent object system.  However, 1) our future work will
probably be done exclusively in C/C++ and 2) the preferred
approach seems to be to use C for persistence and distribution
and revamp Ada via Ada9X so that it can take advantage of the
enormous investment in reusable C and C++ code. 

If anyone is interested a description of the Ada system, which we
call AOOP for Ada Object Oriented Programming.  Drop me a line at
the address below.  


-----------------------------------------
Paul L. Baker     pbaker@cta.com 
CTA Inc.
6116 Executive Blvd. Suite 800
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 816-1242
From: sidou@litsun28.epfl.ch (Dominique Sidou)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: LEX and YACC for Ada
Date: 30 Jul 92 15:13:26 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
In-reply-to: tolboel@iesd.auc.dk's message of 29 Jul 92 07:45:31 GMT


Morten Tolboel writes:

:  I am looking for a LEX and YACC equivalent tool which can generate Ada
:  code instead of C code. Does such a beast exist, where to buy etc.

The thing you search is called aflex and ayacc:

    Source for aflex and ayacc:  liege.ics.uci.edu (~ftp/pub/irus)
        Internet address: 128.195.1.5, 128.195.13.1

/DS.

Sidou Dominique, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne,
DI-LIT-ELD231, Ecublens, CH-1015 Lausanne, Suisse
tel: 693.26.48. e-mail: sidou@litsun.epfl.ch
--

Sidou Dominique, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne,
DI-LIT-ELD231, Ecublens, CH-1015 Lausanne, Suisse
tel: 693.26.48. e-mail: sidou@litsun.epfl.ch
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Markus Kuhn)
Subject: Re: Serial interrupt handler in Meridian Ada on PC?
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen, Germany
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 17:30:07 GMT

Jack W. Sharer <J0S@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

>BTW: Which of the two FOSSIL packages would you use? BNU or X00?

I had some quite misterious problems with X00 (with some of the more 
exotic functions), so I use BNU at the moment without any troubles.
You might check archie for newer versions of BNU if you want. Exchanging
the FOSSIL driver is trivial as all these drivers have a standardized
API (FOSSIL Revision 5). I used it in implementing async HDLC/X.25 and
it worked great.

Markus

-- 
Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student -=-=- University of Erlangen, Germany
Internet: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de  |  X.500 entry available
------------------ ISO?  Nicht immer. Aber immer fter! -------------------
From: mfausett@bbn.com (Mark Fausett)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Review of "Ada & C++: A Business Case Analysis
Date: 22 Jul 92 01:25:27 GMT
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: kirin.bbn.com

mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:

>In article <2329@nic.cerf.net> jonesm@nic.cerf.net (Matthew Jones) writes:
>>Recently I got a copy of:
>>Overiew of U.S. Air Force Report
>>Ada and C++: A Business Case Analysis
>>Form G75-1191
>>AdaCPLUS.HLP
>>
...
>>"Ada validation is more rigorous than for other languages"
>>	So what, there are numerous validated Ada compilers that
>>	generate bad code, validation does not provide quality control.

>I'm curious.  What do you mean by 'bad code' here?  Do you mean
>'slow', or do you mean 'non-working'.  I would expect validation to
>prevent the 'non-working' bit.  I would also expect it to prevent the
>'mis-implementation' of features of the language, something that seems
>to happen with C++ compilers (in part because the language is still in
>flux). 

No, I've found it does not prevent non-working code;  in the bad old days
I was able to break the Verdix (validated) compiler with a generic instantiation
within a generic; causing it to spew reams of C (!) at me.  Same code worked
really well on DEC Ada.

My $.02;

Mark Fausett
mfausett@bbn.com
From: wellerd@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (David Weller)
Subject: Re: Object Oriented Ada Preprocessors
Organization: Ada Joint Program Office
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 22:58:03 GMT

In article <1992Jul30.162413.12856@cs.ucf.edu> dn1l@.ist.ucf.edu (Dale Newfield) writes:
>In article <1992Jul30.123114.4907@news.uni-stuttgart.de> ucaa2385@ruscvx.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (Peter Hermann) writes:
>>Ada9x will provide saturated features to fully support
>>good programing practices.
>>Ada9x even provides single inheritance for those,
>>who still believe that object oriented programing would need it.
>>
>>Peter Hermann
>
>
>This doesn't help.
>Ada9x wont be around untijl Fall 93 at least.

Try 94.  Sorry, we mustn't forget ANSI approval process,  However,
I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of compiler vendors provide
a "limited, non-validated" Ada 9X compiler by late '93. (Hint, Hint)

>We need Obj. Oriented Ada now.
>The only elegant possibility right now is the use of a preprocessor.
>I have done lots of research on them, but most of what I found are written by
>the authors of the preprocessors, so I have no objective numbers to go by.
>From what I have been able to tell, DRAGOON seems the most ideal.

I will pass your compliment along to Colin Atkinson (the author of
DRAGOON).  He and I are currently working on a paper regarding 
translation of DRAGOON to Ada 9X.  Colin took a vacation back to
ENgland last month and found out that TXT (the company that markets
the only DRAGOON preprocessor) will be selling their translator
for about US$200.  The development environment looks pretty nice
(not part of the $200), but we are having probs with Motif on our
Sun here at Univ of Houston (Clear Lake).

>What I'm looking for includes 2 things.
>--I am looking for people that have used these products before.
>--I am looking for the products.
>(I haven't been able to track these people down in Italy, France, London, ...)
>

If you call Colin, he should have that info for you.  His number
is (713)-283-3878.  I can never remember his Internet address, sorry.
From: sinan@milton.u.washington.edu (Sinan Karasu)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Verdix, generics and optimization
Date: 31 Jul 92 00:36:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Jul31.003611.14510
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle


 
 Well I just got bitten with the reverse problam with Verdix Ada.(Sun)
 We have many levels deep  generic instantiations in many many multiple
files. Now before I flame Verdix/Sun I should say that this works
fine on a VAX ACS , Alsys on SCO and Alsys on Sun. However when 
I compile the whole package on Verdix (SunAda) everything is fine
then when I try to link ( a.ld that is) it comes up with a series
of messages that reads as follows. 
 
 elaboration of a.b is circular because it requires 
  an elaboration of c.b and
  an elaboration of d.b 

 elaboration of c.b requires
  an elaborationn of a.b 

 etc......

 Now none of this problems  occur in any of the other compilers 
and we never had a run time problem..Also notice that the 
message says a.b   ... where it should rerally say b.a because
the whole damn thing is in package b .....

 Sounds like some overzealous error checking crazy compiler
writer who is very happy traversing graphs wanted to put in a bit
of error checking without actually testing the product does'n it?
Well this fine little bug just totally fucked up my schedule....
Does anybody know of a workaround that I can use to fool this
idiotic a.ld into submission ? Does anybody know how far I would
have to go back in versions in Verdix compiler to get around
this twit of a program? 
 Do I sound pissed ?
 Thanx for your patience
 Sinan
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Markus Kuhn)
Subject: Re: Serial interrupt handler in Meridian Ada on PC?
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen, Germany
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 16:59:16 GMT

pat@summit.opus (pat gioannini) writes:

>I am wondering how well these drivers work with Ada tasking.  

BTW: You find some FOSSIL drivers (e.g. BNU, X00, ...) in
portal/pc/modem/fossil/:ftp.uni-erlangen.de.

>If the interrupt handler is written in Ada then receiving a character 
>available interrupt can start rendezvous with higher level task.  The 
>higher level task starts immediately if its priority is high enough.  

I didn't succed in writing serial line drivers that use an Ada interrupt
rendevous for each single character for speeds over 1200bits/sec on an 
12MHz 286 AT. So I prefer a ready to use interrupt driven FIFO device
driver where I can poll big blocks of characters. A rendevous for each
single byte is MUCH too much overhead! (Meridian 4.1)

>If the interrupt handler is written in assembly or C or whatever and does
>not understand Ada tasking you are left with polling the serial driver
>for a character available.

The perfect solution: The interrupt handler triggers an interrupt after
e.g. 64 bytes have been received of after a 0.1sec timeout, or ...

Markus

-- 
Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student -=-=- University of Erlangen, Germany
Internet: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de  |  X.500 entry available
------------------ ISO?  Nicht immer. Aber immer fter! -------------------
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: walkerj@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (John Walker)
Subject: Anyone Offering AdaSAGE training?
Organization: Ada Information Clearinghouse
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 16:02:23 GMT

The Ada Information Clearinghouse is gathering information on training
support available for the AdaSAGE application-development system.
This can be commercial or non-profit, charge or no-charge, classroom
training, BBS, publications, video, etc., etc., etc.

The intent is to produce an article on AdaSAGE training support
available, and to have it ready for the next issue of the AdaIC
Newsletter.  In addition, the information will be used for an AdaIC
information flyer.

Please let me know if you offer any training support or if you're
aware of any -- phone, letter, e-mail, posts here (cleansed of
netiquette-violative promotionalism, of course) - whatever is
convenient.

My current deadline is approximately the 1st of August assuming space,
etc., permits putting the article in the Fall newsletter.  Information
received later will still be useful for the AdaSAGE flyer.

*Report of a product, service, or event does not constitute an
endorsement by the AdaIC or the AJPO.*

John Walker, AdaIC, 800/232-4211, 703/685-1477, walkerj@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
               ---Assembler is high-level language.---
           All standard disclaimers apply -- with emphasis!

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: davidk@mcil.comm.mot.com (David Kramer)
Subject: Re: Review of "Ada & C++: A Business Case Analysis
Organization: Motorola Communications Israel Ltd., Tel Aviv
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 07:44:34 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.213215.25806@fcom.cc.utah.edu>, val@news.ccutah.edu (Val Kartchner) writes:
|> jonesm@nic.cerf.net (Matthew Jones) writes:
|> : Recently I got a copy of:
|> : Overiew of U.S. Air Force Report
|> : Ada and C++: A Business Case Analysis
|> : Form G75-1191
|> : AdaCPLUS.HLP
|> : 
|> : This paper supposedly compares Ada and C++ and of course find Ada
|> : to be superior. I found this paper to be filled with errors and
|> : very questionable opinion. Here are a few comments
|> 
|> Here are a few more comments:

<...stuff deleted...>

|> 3. Did you notice in the summary that C++ does better in compile-time and
|> run-time speed, but Ada is better for real-time?  Aren't run-time speed and
|> real-time performance the same thing?  I wonder what other glaring errors
|> were made in the reports that didn't make it through to the summary.

I didn't read the referenced report so I can't comment on it, but the answer  
to your (retorical?) question is no. There is alot more to real-time than just run
time speed. In fact 'runtime speed' if it means the number of assembly
instructions that the code compiles to (which is the only way the 2 languages
can be compared) plays a very small role in the big picture of real-time 
performance.

For one thing, Ada has a realtime paradigm built into the language. You can't
have a realtime application without some means of interprocess communication.
There is no commercially available C++ compiler today that I know of (and I've
been looking) that allows for interprocess communication (by that I mean the
ability to pass messages and object pointers between two C++ processes). So
unless you modify the compiler or go through great pains to write your own
mechanisms you cannot use C++ for a realtime application!

Also, for most serious real-time applications the runtime constaint checking
and exception handling that Ada provides is crucial in providing a reliable
system that is able to respond well to unpredictable and unexpected situations.
Yes, C++ will  provide exception handling in the future, but today that is  not
part of the language, and even when it will be, all runtime checks will have to 
be explicit in the code.

Finally, the C philosphy of 'give the programmer freedom at the expense of
safety because he knows what he's doing' is continued to a great degree in
C++ as well. While this might be acceptable in many applications, most real-time
applications cannot afford this luxury.

---------------
[  David Kramer    INTERNET: davidk@mcil.comm.mot.com  ]
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: king@ssvax.gte.com (Larry King)
Subject: Ada tasking rules and AST's...
Organization: GTE/SCSD
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 19:41:30 GMT

Hello again everyone,

	First I would like to thank all those that replied to my last
posting on Unix system calls in Ada.  The powers to be did not deem it
necessary to provide me with the Sun Ada Programmers Guide.  Now that I
have it and the replies from various people the Unix problem is behind
me... Now I have the following...

	We are issueing VMS system calls from Ada.  These system calls
have associated AST's which I have defined and have gotten to work
correctly.  My question is how can I get Ada to do a rescheduling of the
tasks to get this new entry to run.  There is one process that takes
some amount of time but if the system call has finished we would like
the AST entry to run before this task normally finishes.  Currently we 
issue a delay statement for the time
DURATION'SMALL but this causes us to lose 10 milliseconds of time just
to do the delay.  It does cause VAX Ada to run the AST entry but we would like
to avoid losing the 10 milliseconds if possible.  Does VAX Ada (or any
Ada for that matter) allow you to force an execution of the next entry on 
the queue before the current task has completely finished?  I know the
question is vague but I hope I am giving enough for someone to give me a
reply.  Thanks in advance...

--
Larry King
GTE Government Systems, Needham, MA    		(617) 455-3384 
E-Mail : king%ssvax.dnet@get.com
From: cwl@aber.ac.uk (C W Loftus)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Ada-Italy address?
Date: 21 Jul 92 13:57:33 GMT
Distribution: eunet
Organization: University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Could someone please provide me with the contact address and
email for Ada-Italy.

Thanks

Chris
-- 
Chris Loftus,			  | PHONE: +44 970 622440
Computer Science Department,	  | UUCP : ...!mcsun!ukc!aber!cwl
University College of Wales,	  | INET : cwl@aber.ac.uk
Aberystwyth, Dyfed, UK. SY23 3BZ. | ARPA : cwl%uk.ac.aber@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: bberqu@sagpd1 ()
Subject: C to ADA
Keywords: CtoADA
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 20:48:02 GMT


Hi,

Are there any C to ADA translators available, and if so what are the 
packages/prices or whatever info you could give me?

Thanks in advance

Brian
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: AdaNet and ADA - copyright problems?
From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 17:41:08 GMT
Reply-To: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA

Relax, put away your programming tools, and attend this minor diversion, if
you would....

Some many months ago, I participated in a project to gate a growing
fidotech-based network, known as AdaNet, to UseNet. I suggested the format
shown below for the newsgroups, and it was adopted by AdaNet. The hierarchy
assigned/designated was "ada." The hierarchy will eventually be release on
an experimental basis, much like the k12 net is handled. That there is a
need for a dedicated network dealing with issues confronting the disabled is
not in dispute...

After setting these groups up, and testing the link (towards the day when we
could release the ada groups to the Internet), the powers that be in AdaNet
asked me to change the 'ada' hierarchy to 'adanet' - they cited, among other
things, copyright problems with the ada language.

I haven't made the change, primarily because I doubt that copyright problems
would crop up, and partly because it's a lot of work, and time is short. I
thought I'd drop in today and ask your opinion... do you think the groups
listed below constitute a copyright infringement?

ada.edu.beginner  
ada.edu.digest  
ada.edu.online  
ada.edu.spec-ed  
ada.employ.accommodation  
ada.employ.jobs  
ada.employ.occupation  
ada.general  
ada.indep  
ada.indep.architecture  
ada.indep.mobility  
ada.indep.techaids  
ada.legal  
ada.legal.advocacy  
ada.legal.rights  
ada.med  
ada.med.allergies  
ada.med.arthritis  
ada.med.dialysis  
ada.med.dwarfism  
ada.med.geriatric  
ada.med.respiratory  
ada.med.retardation  
ada.support.child  
ada.support.family  
ada.support.occinjury  
ada.talk.francais  
ada.talk.outdoors  
ada.talk.philosophy  

-- 
"The mass killings by shooting proved cumbersome and expensive. Too many
people were needed to shoot 33,711 Jews on September 29 and 30, 1941, at
Babi Yar near Kiev. Eventually, close to 100,000 corpses filled that
ravine, mostly of Jews, but also of partisans and saboteurs." [Laska]
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: goodsenj@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (John Goodsen)
Subject: Re: GUI Builder for Ada
Organization: Ada Joint Program Office
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 00:19:18 GMT

>
>
>NeXT's interface builder lets you change attributes of graphical objects
>at any time.  You can start to develop a class in the interface builder,
>defining its instance variable and methods, evolve to using text to describe
>what is after all code, and parse the evolved file to keep the inerface
>builder up to date with changes you've made to the text.  
>

Thisn't what was taught in the tutorial at CHI'92.  In particular, I
explicitly addressed this issue and the answer was, if you change the
resulting code, it won't parse back in.  Looking at my notes
from that tutorial, I see a:

        :-( can't unparse more than once :-(

Is this not the case ?

Now you've got me curious ... what's the deal ?


One obvious C++ solution to this functionality is witnessed in the
Interviews Ibuild concept which forces a layer of inheritance between
what the Builder spits out and what you modify, allowing you to always
"re-engineer" the software back into the builder.



-- 
--
John Goodsen                   (619) 530-0881
The Dalmatian Group            U.S. PCIS Expert Review Team
User Interface Specialists     Ada Joint Program Office
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada

/ mothra:comp.lang.ada / spray@convex.com (Rob Spray) /  2:07 pm  Jul 23, 1992 /

> ...
> Well, I think pretty printers have their place.  When you check 
> a file out of the CM system, it can be piped through  the pretty 
> printer with _your_ style preferences.
>
> When something gets checked back in, it's reconverted to the 
> "standard" style in the CM system, which could be the style
> as delivered or maybe a semi-compressed form, e.g. all left
> justified, with no indentation - the compilers don't care.
>
> This scheme obviates the "Style Wars" that waste a lot of time.
>
> --Rob   spray@convex.com
> ...

No argument here... ``pretty printers are fine and dandy''.  I was just making
a point about interactive style enforcement :)

However, I'm sad to hear that Lynn Slater did not have a chance to place the
pretty printer functions into Emacs Ada mode. :(  Is anybody with FSF
continuing his work on this?

Thomas "I'd like to know" Vachuska
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tom@hpncmo.rose.hp.com                   (916)-785-4983  (Telnet & Voice Mail)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: aquirt@bnr.ca (Alan Quirt)
Subject: Re: Ada for OS/2
Followup-To: comp.lang.ada
Organization: BNR, Ottawa Canada
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 15:19:27 GMT

In article <64242@hydra.gatech.EDU>, np4@prism.gatech.edu
 (Nicholas Pomponio) wrote:
> 
>     Does anyone know of any other protected mode Ada compiler (for large 
>     programs) that will run under OS/2?

Our Alsys 386 DOS compiler has the same VCPI interface problem as Meridian,
but they say their new 5.1 version is DPMI compliant. We hope to try it out
soon. In our limited experience Alsys will successfully compile complicated
record representation clauses that Meridian can't handle, but Meridian has
a nicer editor and integrated environment. Both seem to be solid products.
 
... Al Quirt ... (aquirt@bnr.ca)
... just my opinions, of course ...