HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: schrey@oak.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Timothy M. Schreyer)
Subject: Re: Enum's start at 0?
Reply-To: schrey@prc.unisys.com
Organization: Paramax Systems
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 22:00:07 GMT

In article <1992Dec30.033842.10112@seas.gwu.edu>, mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
|> In article <238@trident.datasys.swri.edu> tim@trident.datasys.swri.edu (Timothy J. Barton) writes:
|> >Just curious, but is there a reason enumerated type's POS values
|> >start at 0 instead of 1?
|> >
|> Just like everything else in computing. ASCII characters, for example,
|> run from 0 to 127, not 128. You can represent 0..127 using one less bit than
|> 1..128.
|> 
   All right... then why do string indices start at 1? :-)

     Tim
-- 
 Timothy M. Schreyer                         schrey@vfl.paramax.com
 Software Technology R&D                     (215) 648-2475 
 Paramax Systems Corporation                 FAX: (215) 648-2288
 PO Box 517, Paoli, PA 19301
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Subject: Re: New Arcadia/IRUS AFLEX-AYACC release
Organization: Software Engineering Institute
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 07:54:06 EST

In article <9301061627.aa17219@Paris.ics.uci.edu> irus-software-request@ics.uci.edu writes:

> THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
> IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
> WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Since this message seems to have been posted with no geographical
restriction, perhaps a warning is in order.

As of 1993 January 1, all products distribuited within the European
Community carry an implied warranty of merchantability, including
all computer related products, and this warranty cannot be disclaimed.

In most countries of the EC, in fact, it is illegal to attempt to
disclaim this implied warranty; in the United Kingdom (at least),
it is a *criminal offence* to do so.

About time too, if you want my opinion.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: wallace@etre (Richard Wallace)
Subject: Help: Bryan & Mendal book reference
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:33:23 GMT


Several people have written about the Bryan & Mendal book.  I would like
to find it, but I need a better reference (First names, complete title, etc.).
Thanks to all to reply to the newsgroup.

Aloha,
	Richard


Richard Wallace
Senior Software Engineer
Digital Equipment Corporation
301 Rockrimmon Blvd. South
CXO2-1/7A
Colorado Springs, CO 80919-2398
(719)548-2792
<wallace@cookie.enet.dec.com>

"The opinions expresses are my own, B.P. may not *quite* agree..."

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: ryer@inmet.camb.inmet.com (Mike Ryer)
Subject: Re: CPU resources for embedded Ada programs
Organization: Intermetrics Inc, Cambridge MA
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 20:20:01 GMT

Regarding the statistic of 1MB RAM per 20k SLOC
   
   If you are counting full Ada Statements+Declarations, then 50 bytes
   each seems high.  This could be due to very intricate Ada statements,
   a lot of big buffers, tables, and other data areas, or a lousy compiler.

   If you are counting just plain lines, then 50 bytes per line indicates
   either pathological coding practices, gargantuan buffers, or a truly
   pathetic compiler.

   Most applications I've seen result in 3 to 6 machine instructions per
   executable statement, and 2 to 3 words per declaration.  I'd expect
   20k statements+declarations to yield about 500k.  20k lines should yield
   about 200k.

Regarding the statistic of 3 MIPS per 20k SLOC

   I'd expect anything between .00000001 and 1,000,000.  It depends on what
   you're doing.


Mike Ryer
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: stt@spock.camb.inmet.com (Tucker Taft)
Subject: Re: Ada Readability, Book Reference
Organization: Intermetrics Inc, Cambridge MA
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 23:19:46 GMT

In article <1993Jan4.174424.5699@seas.gwu.edu> 
  mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:

>Hmmm. How on earth could 1.0/3.0 be exact? What would the value be?
>
>I checked my Annotated LRM (thanks to Karl Nyberg!) and found AI-00209:
>"An implementation can refuse to evaluate a static universal real expression
>only if there are insufficient resources to evaluate the expression exactly,
>e.g., if there is insufficient memory available. Inexact results must not
>be delivered."
>
>This is interesting. I take it, then, that 1.0/3.0 will be flagged by
>the compiler, because - unless a rational representation is being
>used, which is always possible, I suppose - there aren't enough bits
>in a megabyte to evaluate it exactly. Do compilers use rationals
>for this?  I'll be back later, after a test or two of this!

All Ada compilers I know of have "infinite precision" rational
arithmetic packages for doing static universal real expressions.
So yes, 1.0/3.0 is computed exactly in the front end of the
compiler when it is static universal.  

Most Ada compilers compute *all* static real 
expressions (even non-universal) to "infinite precision" since
that is allowed by the accuracy model and is often simpler 
than simulating the target floating-point hardware in a cross-compiler.

The infinite precision rational arithmetic package is one of 
several things that makes an Ada front end a "fun" piece
of code to write and maintain ;-).

>Mike Feldman

S. Tucker Taft   stt@inmet.com
Intermetrics, Inc.
Cambridge,  MA  02138
From: mab@wdl39.wdl.loral.com (Mark A Biggar)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Mixing logical operators
Date: 5 Jan 93 23:15:18 GMT
Organization: Loral Western Development Labs

In article <1993Jan5.180216.7426@fcom.cc.utah.edu> swillden@news.ccutah.edu (Shawn Willden) writes:
>My copy of the Ada standard (ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A) says in 4.5.4:
>	...for a sequence of operators of the same precedence level,
>	the operators are associated in textual order from left to
>	right...
>which indicates to me that 
>      if i=5 and j=2 or k=3 then
>      ...
>should be interpreted as 
>       if (i=5 and j=2) or k=3 then
>but the VAX Ada compiler complains that logical operators cannot be
>intermixed.
>Is the VAX compiler wrong?  Am I reading the appropriate part of the 
>standard?

No, it is implisit in the LRM that even though "and", "or" and "xor" 
are at the same precedence level they DON'T associate with each other.
The grammar given in LRM section 4.4 disallows expressions with mixed logical 
operators. Para 4 section 4.5 only states associativity rules of operators at 
precedence levels below that of the logical operators.  The previous sentence 
to the one you quoted limits the scope of the paragraph to only subexpressions
from relations on down and excludes expressions which is where the logical
operators are found in the grammar.  So you must, in any mixed logical 
expression, explisitly use parens to specifiy evaulation order and the VAX
compler is correct.

--
Mark Biggar
mab@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
From: hannahp@topaz.ucq.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Graphic Routines
Date: 11 Jan 93 10:47:21 AET
Organization: University of Central Queensland, Australia

I am looking for a package or equivalent that will graph functions,
calculate axes, etc. 

I have already set up a basic system (direct lines,circles and windowing)
and would appreciate either the code, pseudocode, or references
to the algorithms that would do the higher level graphical functions.

Thanks.
Paul Hannah.
From: regala@sunfse.ese.lmsc.lockheed.com (Ruby R. Regala)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Ada to C converter?
Date: 12 Jan 93 21:58:21 GMT
Distribution: ca
Organization: LOCKHEED, Sunnyvale, CA



    Hello netters,
         I'm not sure if this is the correct newsgroup to post this to
    but here I go.  Does anyone out there have any source that converts
    ADA source to "C" source?   I'm looking for any leads as to where,
    if at all it exists, I can get such source.

    Thanks in advance,
    Ruby
    ( email any responses to regala@sunfse.ese.lmsc.lockheed.com
                          or regala@sunfsg.ese.lmsc.lockheed.com)

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: ucaa2385@iris3.csv.ica.uni-stuttgart.de (Peter Hermann)
Subject: Re: Enum's start at 0?
Organization: ica2
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 14:06:20 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.025929.18871@seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>In article <1993Jan5.220007.26218@gvl.unisys.com> schrey@prc.unisys.com writes:
>>In article <1992Dec30.033842.10112@seas.gwu.edu>, mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>
>[stuff deleted]
>
>>|> >
>>|> Just like everything else in computing. ASCII characters, for example,
>>|> run from 0 to 127, not 128. You can represent 0..127 using one less bit than
>>|> 1..128.
>>|> 
>>   All right... then why do string indices start at 1? :-)
>>
>Beats me. Anyone out there have an authoritative answer?
>
>Mike Feldman

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Enum's start at 0?
Summary: 
Expires: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: 
Organization: ica2
Keywords: 

In article <1993Jan6.025929.18871@seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>In article <1993Jan5.220007.26218@gvl.unisys.com> schrey@prc.unisys.com writes:
>>In article <1992Dec30.033842.10112@seas.gwu.edu>, mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>
>[stuff deleted]
>
>>|> >
>>|> Just like everything else in computing. ASCII characters, for example,
>>|> run from 0 to 127, not 128. You can represent 0..127 using one less bit than
>>|> 1..128.
>>|> 
>>   All right... then why do string indices start at 1? :-)
>>
>Beats me. Anyone out there have an authoritative answer?
>
>Mike Feldman

shouldn't beat you. Both are reasonable.

The first is considered and used more as an "offset".
Additionally it coincides well with age-old integer-to-byte
and vice versa representation.
This representation can well be adopted and is the most likely
fitting data format when talking to foreign hardware
(in the serendipiduous sense). Additionally, the compiler has 
the minimum conceivable work.
I see no harm with that rule. I see the benefits.

The second is naturally used for indexing,
which would be extremely disadvantages with a 0 as first index,
when working on vector and matrix material,
especially for more-dimensional matrices.
Here, you do not think in offsets but in elements, e11,e12,e13,...

Peter Hermann


Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: bracher@jaguar.math.oxy.edu. (Mark W. Bracher)
Subject: Request for info, Ada compilers for msdos or windows
Organization: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA.  USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 22:25:29 GMT

My brother (now sans Internet access) has asked me to post a request for  
any information concerning a PC-based (msdos) Ada compiler.

Egghead has quoted one at $3600 ("well, we sold one once..."), but he  
considers that to be just a mite steep for a recent college graduate.

He has also requested information on a windows-based compiler published by  
Meridian, a Verdix company.

What we are looking for is manufacturer, address and phone number for any  
Ada packages out there that we might have missed.  Comments and price  
quotes would also be appreciated, but are not necessary.  Positive or  
negative reviews of the Meridian compiler would also be appreciated.

As I do not read this group regularly, please direct all responses to me  
rather than posting them.

- mark
(bracher@oxy.edu)
From: alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Mixing logical operators
Date: 5 Jan 93 21:08:56 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <1993Jan5.180216.7426@fcom.cc.utah.edu> swillden@news.ccutah.edu (Shawn Willden) writes:
>       if i=5 and j=2 or k=3 then
> the VAX Ada compiler complains that logical operators cannot be intermixed.
> Is the VAX compiler wrong?  

The VAX compiler is correct, as usual.

Parenthesis are required when different logical operators
appear in the same expression.  The LRM expresses this as a
BNF rule (see 4.4(2)), but its also illustrated
in the last two examples in 4.4(6).

Its not such a bad rule.  The extra parenthesis will help others
read your code, but I'm glad they didnt extend the idea to arithmetic
operators (where the precedence conventions are well established).
-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu   NeXT mail accepted
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (Michele L. Kee (AdaIC))
Subject: Re: INFO-ADA Digest V92 #458
Keywords: AdaIC 
Organization: Ada Information Clearinghouse
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 08:50:52 EST

In article <9301111422.AA14199@genesis.grebyn.com> karl@GREBYN.COM (Karl A. Nyberg) writes:
>In article <29502@oasys.dt.navy.mil> you write:
>>Folks,
>>
>>3.  Also, does anybody know if you have to resubscribe to the
>>Ada Clearing House Newsletters?  I had been receiving it for 
>>approximately 18 months, but I have not received one since
>>around June 1992.  My address has not not changed during this
>>time frame.
>
>Try calling them at 703-684-1477.
>
>Karl Nyberg			-- karl@grebyn.com
>Grebyn Corporation		-- 1-703-281-2194
>P. O. Box 497
>Vienna, VA 22183-0497

The correct phone number for the Ada Information Clearinghouse is
(703) 685-1477.
        ^
-- 
Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)		|  IIT Research Institute
703/685-1477, 800/AdaIC-11, FAX 703/685-7019	|  operates the AdaIC for
Internet:  adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu		|  the Ada Joint Program
CompuServe:  70312,3303				|  Office (AJPO).
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Subject: Re: Ada Readability, Book Reference
Organization: Software Engineering Institute
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 07:55:57 EST

In article <1993Jan4.174424.5699@seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:

>This is interesting. I take it, then, that 1.0/3.0 will be flagged by
>the compiler, because - unless a rational representation is being
>used, which is always possible, I suppose - there aren't enough bits
>in a megabyte to evaluate it exactly. Do compilers use rationals
>for this?  I'll be back later, after a test or two of this!

Mike, in my experience most Ada compilers do indeed use rational
arithmetic to represent numbers and to evaluate universal
expressions.  Together, the lexis of numbers and the syntax of
arithmetic expressions guarantee that all constructible numbers
are rational (bet you never knew one of the designers was a
closet Pythagorean!).  The number "1.0/3.0" would therefore
be held internally as 1/3, until the time came to spit out the
right bits for the chosen target machine type.

I think a universal arithmetic package is available in the Simtel
archives.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)
Subject: Re: Ada Readability, Book Reference
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 17:44:24 GMT

In article <1993Jan4.093155.11894@nobeltech.se> leeu@nobeltech.se (Leif Euren) writes:
>
[stuff deleted]
>>
>>In the specific case, (6.0 * 1.0)/3.0 can yield a different result from 
>>6.0 * (1.0 / 3.0) because 1.0/3.0 cannot be exactly represented.
>>Therefore an expression like
>>  6.0 * (1.0 / 3.0) = (6.0 * 1.0) / 3.0
>>may not evaluate to True. Traditional floating-point gotcha.
>
>Er... This is not a very good example. The constants used are of
>universal_real type, and according to LRM 4.10(4) "... if a universal
>expression is a static expression, then the evaluation must be exact."
>
>But if I write
>
>	B := 1.0;
>
>	if 6.0 * (B / 3.0) = (6.0 * B) / 3.0 then
>
>	else
>
>	end if;
>
>your arguments hold true.

Hmmm. How on earth could 1.0/3.0 be exact? What would the value be?

I checked my Annotated LRM (thanks to Karl Nyberg!) and found AI-00209:
"An implementation can refuse to evaluate a static universal real expression
only if there are insufficient resources to evaluate the expression exactly,
e.g., if there is insufficient memory available. Inexact results must not
be delivered."

This is interesting. I take it, then, that 1.0/3.0 will be flagged by
the compiler, because - unless a rational representation is being
used, which is always possible, I suppose - there aren't enough bits
in a megabyte to evaluate it exactly. Do compilers use rationals
for this?  I'll be back later, after a test or two of this!

Mike Feldman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael B. Feldman
co-chair, SIGAda Education Committee

Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
School of Engineering and Applied Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
(202) 994-5253 (voice)
(202) 994-5296 (fax)
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)

"Americans want the fruits of patience -- and they want them now."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: jmacleod@fox.nstn.ns.ca (James Mac Leod)
Subject: Ada interrupts
Keywords: interrupt serial port
Organization: Micronav International
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 18:39:18 GMT

I am looking for information on how to write interrupts in 
Meridian Ada 4.1.4 for serial communications on a 286 PC.  I am familiar 
with the 8250 UART chip in the 286 and how to initialize it (i.e. the baud 
rate, parity, etc).  The problem is how the Ada tasks work.  I have tried 
using entry clauses to both interrupt C and B  but neither appear to work.  
I have also tried saving the DOS interrupt vector using DOS function call 
250C and restoring using 350C.  Are these functions only for interrupt C?  
If so what are the function calls for interrupt B?  A similar program 
written in Alsys Ada works on an XT which uses interrupt C.  The 286 has a 
different serial port address so maybe it should use interrupt B.  The port 
is at address 2F8H.  Any body give me a hand?  It would be greatly 
appreciated.

Jamie

My EMAIL address is: jmacleod@fox.nstn.ns.ca
		
Micronav International Inc
P.O.Box 1523 / 104 Marine Drive
Sydport Industrial Park,
Sydney, N.S. Canada B1P 6R7
Tel: 902-564-8833      Fax: 902-564-8764
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl,news.answers
From: estephen@whosnext.cad.gatech.edu (Eric R Stephens)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
Subject: Pish/graph-1.0 Tk 3.0 patch
Date: 5 Jan 1993 17:33:07 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, CAE/CAD Lab
NNTP-Posting-Host: whosnext.cad.gatech.edu
Keywords: pish

Graph-1.0 does not work with Tk3.0 because Tk_FreeGC now requires a display  
pointer.  Is there a fix?
From: garfield@cs.tu-berlin.de (Sven Delmas)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
Subject: Re: Wish to contact other xf users
Date: 6 Jan 1993 10:48:00 GMT
Organization: Techn. Univ. Berlin (Germany)
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: avalanche.cs.tu-berlin.de
In-reply-to: weinri@athena.cs.uga.edu's message of Tue, 5 Jan 1993 19:59:59 GMT

In article <C0ECw1.L4x@athena.cs.uga.edu> weinri@athena.cs.uga.edu (Kevin Weinrich) writes:

   I've just started using Sven Delmas' xf to create tk/tcl programs, and
   I'm interested in communicating with any other xf users.

   A couple of preliminary questions:
     Should I move up to tk 3.0 and tcl 6.5? (I'm using xf 1.4, and tk 2.3)
XF will not work with Tk 3.0. I am working on xf 2.0, and that
supports Tk 3.0.

     Has anyone experienced a problem of not being able to create
      global variables or procedures through the "Programming" menu
      choice?
This problem occured because the external editor command (General
Options) was set to: vi
To use vi, it must be: xterm -e vi
To disable the external editor, set the editor command to empty.

   I'd also like to hear any stories of successes and failures you've had
   with xf.
This would indeed be very interesting. I am always interested in
comments on xf.

Sven
--
----
  Sven Delmas (Techn. Univ. Berlin)
    garfield@cs.tu-berlin.de
----
  For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong.
                                                  Henry Louis Mencken
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
From: karl@NeoSoft.com (Karl Lehenbauer)
Subject: Re: Tk/Wish beginner seeks advice on use of text widget
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 00:29:04 GMT

In article <1itak6INNqr2@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> de@helios.UCSC.EDU (De Clarke) writes:
>I can't figure out why the tcl executed with the -command flag from
>a wish script will recognize some variables but not others.
>For example, when the "load" button is pressed (see below), although
>text has been entered in the text widget $w.bot.raval, I get a tcl
>error no such variable.

This is a very common source of confusion for new Tk programmers.

Your difficulties stem from the need to understand how quoting affects
variable substitution and square bracket evaulation, and when you want 
variables substituted and when you don't want them substituted.

>    button $w.bot.load -text "load" -command \
>        "set entry [${w.bot.raval} get 1.0 end]"

See, here you want $w to be expanded when the button is created,
but you don't want the square-bracketed part to execute until
the button is pressed, so you need:

    button $w.bot.load -text "load" -command \
        "set entry \[$w.bot.raval get 1.0 end\]"

Since you're using double quotes, the insides of the command will be
evaluated.  (They wouldn't be if you'd used curly brackets.)

If you don't force "w" to be expanded at button creation time, a
variable "w" must exist as a global at button execution time.

>Before I put the curlies around $w.bot.raval, tcl complained
>about "w" being undefined -- couldn't handle the dots in the var name.
>Tcl appears to be allergic to variable names containing "." whereas
>wish uses them routinely.  [?]

Nah, dot terminates a varname, so $w.foo will get the value of w
and concatenate it with .foo.

>button $w.bot.dismiss -text "go away" -command \
>	"puts stdout $var1; puts stdout $var2; destroy $w"

>In this instance, var1 and var2 were correctly written to stdout,
>but window $w was not destroyed ("No such variable $w") 

Are you *sure* you didn't use curlies rather than double quotes?  i.e.

button $w.bot.dismiss -text "go away" -command \
	{puts stdout $var1; puts stdout $var2; destroy $w}

...because your example works fine for me.  With the curlies instead of
quotes, see, the $w isn't expanded until button press time, at which time
there is no w variable (unless it's a global).  This is where it gets
tricky, like w is known at button creation time, but you're going to want
var1 and var2 to be picked up from globals when the button is pressed, you
have to do something like:

button $w.bot.dismiss -text "go away" -command \
	"puts stdout \$var1; puts stdout \$var2; destroy $w"
-- 
-- Email info@NeoSoft.com for info on getting interactive Internet access.
"In a minute, I'll burp up your droid."
Newsgroups: bnr.lang.tcl,comp.lang.tcl
From: norm@bnr.ca (Norm MacNeil)
Subject: Re: psroff for man page printing - where?
Reply-To: norm@bnr.ca
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 20:11:09 GMT

Also, what parameters did "you" use to generate the file?  I've never used
psroff and may not know some of the nuances associated with generating PS
files using "roff"'s.

Thanks,
  Norm.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Norm MacNeil                     Phone: (613) 763-3372
 Data Systems                     Fax:   (613) 765-2854
 Bell-Northern Research Ltd.      EMail: norm@bnr.ca (INTERNET)
 #include <disclaimer.std>       "Roller bladers do it in-line!"
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl