HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ng@saturn.cs.swin.oz.au (Naasif Gierdien)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: WANTED: Ada Socket Package
Keywords: C, Sockets, Ada
Date: 30 Jul 92 04:29:24 GMT
Followup-To: comp.lang.ada
Organization: Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.

Has anyone written an ADA interface package to C socket library calls ??

Anything public domain would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance

Naasif


-- 
Naasif Gierdien
ng@saturn.cs.swin.oz.au
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: lam@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com (Josh Lam)
Subject: Advice For Learning ADA
Organization: Honeywell Air Transport Systems Division
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 18:50:30 GMT

Hi,

I am very new to this newsgroup and the world of ADA.  I will be attempting
to learn Ada pretty soon (actually, I got to learn it fairly well in 2
months) and would like some tips and advice and books:

Prior to this, I have been programming in C and C++ and it would really
help if anyone who has been in this situation can share some experiences eg
what to look out for, pitfalls to avoid and differences in programming
paradigm etc. 

*Please*, I am *not* interested in starting a 'religious' war ie I am *not*
interested in C/C++ vs Ada or language lawyering.  I just need hints/tips on
transitioning from C/C++ to Ada.

Finally, I saw many Ada books at the store, a lot of them use parallel
examples in Pascal.  Are there any books that are written more to help
C/C++ programmers transition to Ada?

Thanks in advance.

Josh Lam
Honeywell Inc
lam@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com

-- 
Josh Lam
Honeywell Inc
lam@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com
From: alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: GUI Builder for Ada (NeXT)
Date: 23 Jul 92 15:55:43 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <1992Jul23.001918.16925@sei.cmu.edu> goodsenj@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (John Goodsen) writes:
> >NeXT's interface builder lets you ...
> start to develop a class in the interface builder, [modify generated code]
> and parse the evolved file to keep the interface
> >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.  

This is definitely NOT true.
You can parse the class definition file as many times as you wish.
Every time you change the interface is a good idea. There is no need to parse 
if you change the implementation as that's not important to the Interface Builder.

> Looking at my notes from that tutorial, I see a:
>         :-( can't unparse more than once :-(
                    ^^^^^^
> Is this not the case ?

You misunderstood (though they dont make it crystal clear)
Unparse means to generate a class interface and noop implementation file
from the info stored in the builder.  You use this when you have defined
a class and its time to add some code to the implementation methods.

You CAN unparse multiple times, but you will overwrite any changes
you made since the last timer you unparsed (it prompts) but this
is NOT a problem at all.  You dont need to do this ever.

You CAN parse multiple times and this is crucial, you do this alot.

Parsing and unparsing are the way you keep the two representations of the
same info (i.e. custom class defs) in synch.  One representation (the code) is
a superset of the other (the IB data structures)

In practice, you define a class in IB, 
instantiate objects and connected the instances to other
instances in various ways (all graphically).
You unparse once to get an implementation file, edit it to define
your code, only work in the text file from then on (for that class definition)
and parse when you change the interface to inform the IB.

You still use the graphical IB throughout, over and over again to change
attributes, connections, create instances, define other classes, browse
classes, modify the user interface in many ways.
If you make changes to the generated code - no problem, you just
need to hit the parse button to inform IB about them.
I believe even this may go away in 3.0 next month because they support
precompiled interface files (getting more like Ada) though I havent
seen this with my own eyes.

> 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.

This layer is not necessary with NeXT IB and objective C.
-- 
-------------------------------
Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu
From: rlk@VisiCom.COM (Bob Kitzberger)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Review of "Ada & C++: A Business Case Analysis
Date: 27 Jul 92 18:49:19 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: VisiCom Laboratories, Inc., San Diego, California

In article <mfausett.711768327@kirin> mfausett@bbn.com (Mark Fausett) writes:
>mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:
>
>>In article <2329@nic.cerf.net> jonesm@nic.cerf.net (Matthew Jones) writes:
>...
>>>"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 would expect validation to prevent the 'non-working' bit.  I 
>>would also expect it to prevent the 'mis-implementation' of features 
>
>No, I've found it does not prevent non-working code;  

So what's the point?  Nobody can claim that validation 'provides' full
quality control, nor that validation 'prevents' bugs/non-working-code.  
Nonetheless, the presence of a rigorous (~7000 tests?) validation suite is 
A Good Thing, no?   The lack of a rigorous validation suite is A Bad Thing, 
no?

	.Bob.
----------------
Bob Kitzberger          VisiCom Laboratories, Inc.
rlk@visicom.com         10052 Mesa Ridge Court, San Diego CA 92121 USA
			+1 619 457 2111    FAX +1 619 457 0888
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: amichail@cayley.uwaterloo.ca (Amir Michail)
Subject: Ada interrupt handling model
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 14:47:26 GMT

I would like all those who replied to my earlier question about interrupt
handling in high level languages.  If anyone is interrested, I will
summarize the references given to me.

However, I have another question!

How does the Ada run-time environment support the interrupt handling model?
In particular, suppose an entry call is made by an external source, then
how is the call executed if there is no corresponding software task ?  

For example, suppose that the entry call cannot be accepted immediately,
and so the caller must block for a short time.  If the caller is not a
software task (i.e. is as a result of hardware interrupt), then how
can this be done without adding extra software tasks for each interrupt
source that act as distributors?
 
I also understand that some Ada implementations provide restrictions
on what can be done in the entry call for interrupts for precisely
this reason.

Amir
From: alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Object Oriented Ada Preprocessors
Date: 30 Jul 92 18:29:06 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

in Article 3359 of comp.lang.ada rharwood@east.pima.edu writes:

>> I am aware of several government contracts which PROHIBIT the use of
>> pre-processed Ada code.  It is a requirement that all code be developed by real
>> humans, and that THAT code should be the input directly to the compiler.

In article <1992Jul30.123114.4907@news.uni-stuttgart.de> ucaa2385@ruscvx.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (Peter Hermann) writes:

> This is only reasonable in the long run. 
> Ada9x will provide saturated features to fully support good programing practices.

I agree under many circumstances that machine generated Ada is a bad idea,
for several reasons.  But I hope they allow exceptions under reasonable
circumstances.  Writing parsers by hand would benefit no one.

If the generator is supplied as Ada source then future maintenance could
proceed even if the original parties are no longer available.

There are other situations where generated source makes sense,
but I wouldnt put OO front ends in the list.
-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu   NeXT mail accepted
From: lonjers@prc.unisys.com (Jim Lonjers)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Unix System Calls in Ada
Summary: POSIX
Date: 21 Jul 92 04:54:26 GMT
Organization: Paoli Research Center - Paoli, PA

In article <1992Jul16.163509.22447@sei.cmu.edu> jldh@sei.cmu.edu (Jorge Luis Diaz-Herrera) writes:
>
>In article <1992Jul16.143215.31211@europa.asd.contel.com>, king@ssvax.gte.com (Larry King) writes:
>|> ...
>|> 	NOW I have been asked to implement system calls in Unix...
>|> ...  What I need to know is how to issue a
>|> system call that is not found in these.  What do I have to with, what
>|> are the bindings, etc..  For example sake, the system call SETITIMER is
>|> one that I must do.  Can anyone help me in this task????   
>|> 
>|> Thanks in advance
>|> 
>|> --
>|> Larry King
>|> GTE Government Systems, Needham, MA    		(617) 455-3384 
>|> E-Mail : king%ssvax.dnet@get.com
>
>This is very very implementation dependent.
>
>VADS provides several unix-related service packages: look at "unix_prcs", here
>	they offer ways to do process operations, such as:
>	function execute (cmd : string) return integer;
>        -- which will interpret 'cmd' as a unix (shell) command. Or
>	function spawn (cmd : string) return integer;
>
>Alsys also provides similar facilities: E.g.,
>	SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT.EXEC_SHELL_COMMAND ("sort -u i.file > o.file");
>
>Look at your vendor's literature.
>
>jld-h
>--..--
>

Talk to your favorite Ada vendor about the availability of POSIX Ada (IEEE
P1003.5) bindings.  Many vendors have/are currently producing such bindings
and yours may have them available.

The POSIX Ada bindings were accepted as an IEEE standard about a month ago
and will be an ANSI standard "real soon now."

Jim Lonjers
Chair, POSIX Ada Standards Working Group (IEEE P1003.5)
From: adainfo@AJPO.SEI.CMU.EDU ("Michele L. Kee, AdaIC")
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Ada 9X announcement - ACVC Test Availability
Date: 22 Jul 92 15:35:10 GMT
Organization: The Internet


ACVC TEST AVAILABILITY (7/17)

One of the objectives of the ACVC review process for Ada 9X
is to promote feedback on the test suite from various
sources during its development.  In order to give users and
compiler developers maximum visibility into the process, the
Ada 9X Project Office will provide access to the tests that
are being developed for Ada 9X prior to their formal
release.  These tests can be accessed by anonymous ftp over the
Internet from "ftp.sei.cmu.edu" in the directory "pub/acvc-9x".
Naming conventions for the tests remain the same as for the
Ada83 ACVC test suite except that a date has been appended
to the file to identify the version of the
test for the purposes of this preliminary release.

Initially, the tests in the directory will be those that have
been corrected, consolidated, or otherwise modified as a result
of formulating a baseline test suite which will be applicable to
both Ada83 and Ada 9X (the 9X-Basic baseline).  Subsequently,
tests of Ada 9X specific functionality will be added.

It should be understood that the tests in this directory
represent work-in-progress and are subject to change.  They are
under review by the ACVC Reviewers.  All comments should be sent
by email to "ada9x-acvc@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu", with the full file
name of the test in the subject line.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is being posted for the Ada 9X Project Office.

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: s6883289@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Peter Hawkins)
Subject: attributes for record types?
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 20:48:41 GMT

this is one big mystery  i never quite understand. why no language provide
an easy way to access each component of a record without knowing its name?
is it possible to have an attribute, say, 'component for accessing record
components? i think there're lots of uses for having such a feature.
 
-- 
// s6883289@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Peter Hawkins)
// this message is made possible through the contributions of: 
// zxcvbnm,./';lkjhgfdsaqwertyuiop[]\=-0987654321`
// ~!@#$%^&*()_+|}{POIUYTREWQASDFGHJKL:"?><MNBVCXZ
From: tolboel@iesd.auc.dk (Morten Tolboel)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: LEX and YACC for Ada
Date: 29 Jul 92 07:45:31 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, Aalborg University


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.

Morten Tolboel
tolboel@iesd.auc.dk
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: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 08:42:43 GMT

In article <2408@nic.cerf.net>, jonesm@nic.cerf.net (Matthew Jones) writes:
|> C (and C++) is not an operating system, real time or other. There are many 
|> real time operating systems available, usually tied to the hardware
|> (ie VxWorks or OS9 for the 68k family...). This way seems much more sensible 
|> to me than the Ada "we can solve everyones real time requirements on
|> all hardware with one paradigm." 
If you have something against the Ada implementation you are always free
to use direct system service calls to the operating system just like
you do in C. Meanwhile there are projects that have used Ada tasking
very successfully, and have thereby left the option open to port
their application to some new super-chip in the future without major
changes to their application.

But the main point I wanted to make is that currently you can't implement
a distributed C++ application (whether real-time or not) with the compilers 
of today without significant effort.

|>                                  Also you might consider that many
|> people have found the Ada tasking model to be implemented very 
|> poorly by the Ada vendors.
This is very unfortunate. However, there are vendors that *have* implemented 
tasking properly. When purchasing any item you have to be sure to buy the 
product that satisfies your requirements. Ada compilers are no different.

|>                              Finally you might consider that Unix
|> (and the myriad of real time knockoffs) have plenty of (real time)
|> interprocess features and since C is often developed for some sort of
|> Unix (or real time) box there is a default standard of sorts. 
Ada tasking is a real-time paradigm. Unix is not a real-time OS, it is
a multi-user (hence multi-process) OS - there is a very big difference.
As far as I know, although there are a couple of companies that have
extended unix for real-time, there is no default standard. And it is
certainly true that the vast majority of real-time applications are
not written for those unix extensions.

|>                            exceptions can cause errors by making the structure
|> of the code more complicated, because exceptions are kind of like a nonlocal goto
|> (Exception handling reminds me of the use of the Unix C library function setlj,
|> in terms of lodgic flow).
To the contrary, I believe that Ada exception handling makes the code less
complicated. The logic flow is simple - if there's something wrong - break out
of this block and handle it. It is better than a goto because the exception 
handler is always in the same place (at the end of the block of code).
In my opinion setting some flag that triggers termination of some loop is 
a sloppier implementation. 

|>                                       Also I think a POSIX real time
|> extensions standard will benefit everyone, C and Ada a like.

I fully agree.

-- 
[  David Kramer    INTERNET: davidk@mcil.comm.mot.com  ]
From: mourlon@enac.dgac.fr (Paul-Henri Mourlon ENAC Dpt E P7983)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Alsys Compiler on HP 700
Date: 23 Jul 92 09:23:40 GMT
Reply-To: mourlon@enac.dgac.fr (Paul-Henri Mourlon ENAC Dpt E P7983)
Organization: Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile

Has anybody encounter problems with dynamic memory management, while using 
"new" allocator?
Thanks

       Paul-Henri Mourlon
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul-Henri Mourlon                     |  Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile
E-mail: mourlon@enac.dgac.fr           |  7, avenue Edouard Belin
Phone : +33 61 55 79 83                |  BP 4005
Fax   : +33 61 55 79 27                |  31055 TOULOUSE CEDEX      FRANCE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Object Oriented Ada Preprocessors
From: rharwood@east.pima.edu
Date: 30 Jul 92 00:21:58 MST

In article <1992Jul30.001017.6089@cs.ucf.edu>, dn1l@.ist.ucf.edu 
(Dale Newfield) writes:

> 	I have been researching PreProcessors to Ada that basically extend 
> the language to include Object Orientation, among other things.

Not wishing to initiate Holy Wars, but only to forewarn anyone hoping to use
pre-processors on DoD-funded efforts:

I am aware of several government contracts which PROHIBIT the use of
pre-processed Ada code.  It is a requirement that all code be developed by real
humans, and that THAT code should be the input directly to the compiler.

This is not to say it can't be done anywhere specifically, nor that it is
either good or bad... just check your contract before you get a surprise during
any formal review process!
-----
Ray Harwood           |Data Basix           |Adjunct Faculty, East Campus,
Voice: (602)721-1988  |PO Box 18324         |   Pima Community College
FAX:   (602)721-7240  |Tucson, AZ 85731     |Instructor in Ada and Pascal
CompuServe: 76645,1370|AppleLink: DATA.BASIX|Internet: rharwood@east.pima.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: ucaa2385@ruscvx.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (Peter Hermann)
Subject: Re: Object Oriented Ada Preprocessors
Organization: User ruscvx Comp.Center (RUS) University of Stuttgart, Germany
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 12:31:14 GMT

in Article 3359 of comp.lang.ada rharwood@east.pima.edu writes:

>I am aware of several government contracts which PROHIBIT the use of
>pre-processed Ada code.  It is a requirement that all code be developed by real
>humans, and that THAT code should be the input directly to the compiler.

This is only reasonable in the long run. 

Future software engineering must strive to be as simple as possible
in order to be successful.
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
From: bwallet@N40MP.NSWC.NAVY.MIL (Brad Wallet)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: A 64 Bit Integer Package
Date: 27 Jul 92 14:53:12 GMT

Time to prove the incredible re-useability of Ada:

Does anyone know where I can get a package to handle 64 bit integers?
The package must be portable to many different machines.  It doesn't
have to do anything fancy--just add, subtract, multiply, divide.  It
must be able to interact with normal integers, i.e.

   integer_64 := integer_64 + integer;
   integer    := integer_64 / integer;
   ect.

thanx,
-------------------------------------------------
Brad Wallet                 Mathematician
bwallet@relay.nswc.navy.mil Naval Surface Warfare Center
(703)663-4950               (AVN)249-4950
DSMAC - "Tomahawk's Eyes"
"I can neither confirm nor deny that these opinions
are entirely my own and may or may not reflect those
of the US Navy." 

From: tom@mothra.rose.hp.com (Thomas Vachuska)
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 06:21:28 GMT
Subject: Re: Style Guide "Enforcers: (was Re: Question of style)
Organization: HP Networked Computer Mfg. Operation
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada

Hmmm.... pretty printers are fine and dandy, but I would tend to think that
interactive (or incremental) formating, would be the thing to go after -
as in GNU Emacs Ada mode.  What do you think?

I know that there is a pretty good Ada mode, but as far as I know it does not
perform any style guideline enforcement.  Does anybody want to correct me on
this?  I'd love to be wrong. ;)

Thomas Vachuska
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tom@hpncmo.rose.hp.com                   (916)-785-4983  (Telnet & Voice Mail)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xref: sparky comp.lang.ada:2224 comp.windows.x.apps:657 comp.windows.x.motif:5290 comp.sys.hp:8666
From: ng@saturn.cs.swin.oz.au (Naasif Gierdien)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.windows.x.apps,comp.windows.x.motif,comp.sys.hp
Subject: WANTED: Interface Architect to produce ADA code
Keywords: ADA, HP UX, X Windows
Date: 29 Jul 92 09:59:51 GMT
Followup-To: comp.lang.ada
Organization: Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.

Hello. Currently we are running HP-UX 8.0 on HP 9000's using Interface 
Architect 1.1 and 2.0. 

What we require are ada packages to interface with Interface Architect Xlib 
functions or alternatively does there exist an Interface Architect that
produces ADA source code that could then be linked with standard Xlib, Xt and/or
Motif C libraries ?

Regards

Naasif
ps. email preferred

-- 
Naasif Gierdien
ng@saturn.cs.swin.oz.au
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: pat@summit.opus (pat gioannini)
Subject: Re: Serial interrupt handler in Meridian Ada on PC?
Organization: /home/pat/.organization
	<Bruyt1.F0F@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:44:47 GMT

>> Perhaps the better solution is not to implement the interrupt handler
>> in Meridian Ada but to use one of the many high quality public domain
>> serial port drivers and write just an Ada interface. These often are
>> written in highly optimized machine code and include also support for
>> a large variety of serial line chips (e.g. the 16550 with 16 byte FIFO
>> etc.). I highly recommend drivers conforming to the FOSSIL specification
>> that evolved in the Fido community, e.g. the BNU driver.
>>
>> Markus


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

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.  

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.

What I am getting at it the latency between receiving a character and actually
processing it can be quite large with foreign language device drivers that
do not interact with the Ada runtime system.  It depends on the application
whether this is bad or not.  Using a comercial package can save a lot of 
time.  I wish device drivers for serial ports and such written in Ada were
more commonly available.


pat
pat@psl.nmsu.edu
--
pat gioannini
pat@psl.nmsu.edu

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada