HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)
Subject: Please help with an old comp.lang.ada article. Desperate.
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 19:19:01 GMT

Several weeks ago, Rich Pattis posted a note containing some prices
of IBM RS-6000 compilers for different languages. Neither of us
apparently saved a copy. I need it desperately for Tri-Ada - can
someone help?

Thanks!

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 wants the fruits of patience -- and they want them now."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: willett@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (david.c.willett)
Subject: Re: Calling Ada from a non-Ada language
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 22:40:56 GMT

From article <1992Nov11.172455.11472@dale.ksc.nasa.gov>, by rsimonia@dale.ksc.nasa.gov (Rick Simonian):
> 
> I'm sure that most will consider this to be gross and unwieldy,
> but we need to be able to call Ada routines from non-Ada 
> languages.  We first want to solve the problem from C; other
> languages need to be addressed later.

dcw-> You got that right, it's pretty gross and unwieldy, but what precisely
dcw-> do you mean by "call Ada routines from non-Ada languages"?  Do you 
dcw-> intend for a C function (possibly main) to call an Ada procedure?
dcw-> Would running the Ada units as a "detached" (in VMS-speak) or
dcw-> "child" process solve your problem?  Why do you need to do this
dcw-> anyway?

dcw->	(John Bentley, in "Programming Pearls" says to always ask that
dcw->	 last question).
dcw->
>
> I would like to know of any experience doing this in a Unix
> environment, both where Ada is the main procedure, and where
> C (for example) is the main procedure.  I'm aware of the
> obvious problems: how to link the executable if Ada is not
> the main, how to elaborate the Ada runtime, use of exceptions, 
> passing complex structures, how tasking works, and so forth.
> 
> Ada provides a reasonable means of calling non-Ada routines,
> but you hit a brick wall going the other way.  This problem
> needs to be addressed in order to better integrate Ada into
> a heterogeneous environment.
> 
> Rick Simonian
> Harris Space Systems Corp.
> simonian@x102a.ess.harris.com
>
 
-- 
Dave Willett          AT&T Federal Systems Advanced Technologies
attmail!dwillett      (AT&T FSAT)
-- Some girls don't like boys like me.... Oh but some girls do!
	-- Sawyer Brown
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: ppc1@cec1.wustl.edu (Peter Pui Tak Chiu)
Subject: README
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 17:14:38 GMT



hi everyone,

i just downloaded ADAEDEXE.ZOO.  it is said that there is a README file
in it but i couldn't find it... does anyone know how to use this ADA
program???

thanx

peter
From: crispen@efftoo.boeing.com (crispen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Incorporation of Fortran CSCI into Ada system
Date: 9 Nov 92 18:08:06 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Internet

Russ Johnson asks if anyone has incorporated a Fortran CSCI into
an existing Ada system.  A better question might be whether anyone
on this list *hasn't* done this ;-)

We've done it just about every way, and the original conclusions
we came to in the ASVP final report still hold for us: don't recode;
redevelop.  If you have to use the original Fortran, try to make
sure you've got a real CSCI.  The biggest problem with incorporating
Fortran into Ada is that (because Fortran historically had a high
penalty on arguments in subroutine calls) people used COMMONs and
thus lost control over dataflow.  Also, particularly with cyclic
executive architectures, you often didn't care that your first
few iterations were computing on garbage; Ada obviously does care.

I can't describe the incorporation of Fortran elements as anything
but "quick and dirty", and I can't describe translation of Fortran
into Ada-tran as anything but "quick and buggy".  Your mileage may
vary, of course.
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Bob Crispen                   |   The owls are not what they seem    |
| crispen@foxy.boeing.com       +--------------------------------------+
| (205) 461-3296                |Opinions expressed here are mine alone|
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: accs1@bagheera.mumath
Subject: Ada - AMIGA, a contradiction ?
Keywords: Ada, AMIGA
Reply-To: accs1@bagheera.mumath
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 13:43:43 GMT

I mean, the subject says it all. Is there any Ada compiler available for the AMIGA ?
Might be it is so that 'you do not program in Ada on the AMIGA'. 

To my mind there are two different species writing programs:

	Programmers, writing there programs in all kinds of funny languages

	Software Engineers, building software using Ada

So again, any Ada for the AMIGA?

Frank



Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: jessop@ljohub.enet.dec.com (Class Dinosauria)
Subject: Re: Who uses Ada??
Reply-To: jessop@ljohub.enet.dec.com (Class Dinosauria)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 21:11:47 GMT


>	I am a DOD civillian engineer who is obviously affected by the
>Ada mandate.  I was having a conversation with a co-worker and we came
>up with a question.  Who (companies, and individuals, and schools) use
>Ada AND, are not associated with the US federal government or government
>contracting.  In other words, who uses Ada because they want to, not
>because they were told to?

I do, whenever I can, and whenever it fits the bill.  I taught myself Ada
several years ago and fell in love with it.  I think it is an excellent
language because it is very powerful, modular and strongly typed.  It's 
error handling features are a great bonus too.  

Admittedly, I don't always use it like it SHOULD be used because I like to
find any reason to use it... but hey...

Mike
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: jessop@ljohub.enet.dec.com (Class Dinosauria)
Subject: Re: More Ashamedness of Ada - this time OBJECT WORLD
Reply-To: jessop@ljohub.enet.dec.com (Class Dinosauria)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 17:15:28 GMT



>BUT WHERE IS THE ADA CROWD?  Reading comp.lang.ada, ADA is THE object oriented
>language.  Yet why doesn't anyone put my tax money where their mouths are?

I can't say for certain... but I HOPE DEC will present Ada along w/ C++ and
whatever else they are displaying.

DEC makes THE best Ada compiler and library system (as far as I'm concerned).
Also...  the current version of Ada is not considered a fully OO language, tho'
it lends itself to OO design and programing.  The next version of Ada (L.D.)
(I hear) will make it a true OO language.

I could be wrong... feel free to correct me...?

Mike
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: jgg@evb.com (John Goodsen)
Subject: Re: OOD, Ada, and Inheritance
Organization: EVB Software Engineering, Inc.
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 20:13:48 GMT

emery@Dr_No.mitre.org (David Emery) writes:

>
>Finally, you might want to consider 'Classic-Ada', which is a
>pre-processor that takes an "object oriented Ada" and translates it to
>legal Ada.
>

Or better yet, DRAGOON which supports multiple inheritance.
See the FAQ for details.

--
John Goodsen                           PCIS Programme
Software Process & Environments        Ada Joint Program Office       
EVB Software Engineering               goodsenj@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
jgg@evb.com
From: erickson@atlas.cs.nps.navy.mil (David Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: UNIX sockets & Ada
Date: 4 Nov 92 15:59:36 GMT
Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA

I'm looking for a simple (?) example of the use of sockets for IPC
or a small demo client/server application written in SUN4 Meridian or Verdix
Ada.  

-Dave Erickson
Xref: sparky comp.lang.ada:3216 comp.object:4155
From: paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.object
Subject: Re: OOD, Ada, and Inheritance
Date: 6 Nov 92 09:00:41 GMT
Reply-To: paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson)
Organization: GEC-Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, UK

In article <mmaccorm.47@fox.nstn.ns.ca> mmaccorm@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Mike Mac Cormack) writes:
>If Ada software is being designed using OOA and OOD, should inheritance be 
>avoided (or prohibited) in the design process, as Ada does not provide 
>inheritance? 

Good question.  If no-one has any other questions then class is
dismissed :-)

I recall that ADA's genericity system allows you to pass functions and
procedures as parameters in a way reminiscent of the C function
pointers (although ADA is type-safe).  I would look into the
possibility of simulating inheritance by setting up structures of
functions when objects are created.  You should be able to get single
inheritance without too much trouble.  Maybe an ADA guru can suggest
some details.

One system built in this way is the X Intrinsics library (Xt).  Its
built in C, but the principle remains the same.  Take a look at it for
an idea of what I mean.

Paul.
-- 
Paul Johnson (paj@gec-mrc.co.uk).	    | Tel: +44 245 73331 ext 3245
--------------------------------------------+----------------------------------
These ideas and others like them can be had | GEC-Marconi Research is not
for $0.02 each from any reputable idealist. | responsible for my opinions
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: jgg@evb.com (John Goodsen)
Subject: Re: OOD, Ada, and Inheritance
Organization: EVB Software Engineering, Inc.
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 18:49:28 GMT

>
>I recall that ADA's genericity system allows you to pass functions and
>procedures as parameters in a way reminiscent of the C function
>pointers (although ADA is type-safe).  I would look into the
>possibility of simulating inheritance by setting up structures of
>functions when objects are created.  You should be able to get single
>inheritance without too much trouble.  Maybe an ADA guru can suggest
>some details.
>
>

Look at chapter 9 of "Object-Oriented Reuse, Concurrency and
Distribution - An Ada-Based Approach", by Atkinson - ACM PRESS.

It provides a translation strategy of DRAGOON to Ada.

--
John Goodsen                           PCIS Programme
Software Process & Environments        Ada Joint Program Office       
EVB Software Engineering               goodsenj@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
jgg@evb.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada to C/C++ translation
From: mzwick@vitro.com (Morris J. Zwick)
Date: 6 Nov 92 09:09:24 -0500
Distribution: world
Organization: Vitro Corporation

In article <9211051541.AA19603@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu> BRADBEER@LEVA.LEEDS.AC.UK
writes:
>Is anybody aware of any ADA to C/C++ translators? I would be gratefull of any
>information anyone could forward either to the list or myself.
>

Is this proof of deevolution? :)

         ___________________________________________________________________
        /  Morris J. Zwick	                 Internet: mzwick@vitro.com
__     /   Vitro Corporation	             Voice:    (301) 231-2784
  \   /    14000 Georgia Ave.                ___________________________
   \ /     Silver Spring, MD 20906-2972      |"I don't want the world; |
    *                                        | I just want your half!" |
                                             |  - They Might Be Giants |

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: larry@tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Larry Maturo)
Subject: Re: Who uses Ada??
Organization: Applied Research Labs, The University of Texas at Austin
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 13:56:15 GMT

In article <1992Nov5.015812.17210@fcom.cc.utah.edu> val@news.ccutah.edu (Val Kartchner) writes:
>larry@tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Larry Maturo) writes:
>: You left out the important and growing group of those who must use Ada and
>: after having had to use would not switch even if they could.  Try it,
>: you'll like it.
>
>I've tried it.  (Assuming you call >28KSLOC/yr trying.)  I don't like it.
>I prefer to use the right tool for the job.  If that's Ada, then I'll
>use that.  However, many people only know one language and assume that
>that language is best for everything.
>
>I consider it telling that it is endorsed (by mandate) by an organization
>which can't balance it's collective checkbook (and many individual ones).
>--
>|== with disclaimer; use disclaimer; == val@csulx.weber.edu ==///=============|
>| "Ada and C++: A Business Case Analysis" -- Air Force Study /// Weber State  |
>| "And what would you like this study to conclude, sir?" \\\///   University  |
>|========== -- Mr. Richfield, "Dinosaurs" ================\///= Ogden UT USA =|


As I said in an earlier post I think it's silly to only know and/or use one
language.  Languages are tools, one size does not fit all.  On the other hand,
I find it hard to believe that there are people who don't find Ada the right
tool for any job.  I suspect the problem is with them more than with Ada.  Heck,
I've even found problems best solved by assembly language at times.  And of
course, whatever language is the right tool for the job you should like while
you are doing that job since if it's the right tool it's saving you time and/or
effort better spent else where.

+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
|                                   |                                        |
| Larry Maturo                      | Opinions expressed herein must be      |
| Tactical Simulation Division      | yours, neither I nor my employer have  |
| Applied Research Laboratories     | any.                                   |
| University of Texas at Austin     |                                        |
| P.O. Box 8029                     +----------------------------------------+
| Austin, Texas 78713-8029          |                                        |
|                                   | When you're as great as I am it's hard |
| larry@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu  | to be modest, but I succeed where      |
|                                   | others fail.                           |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
From: btk@aber.ac.uk (Benjamin Ketteridge)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Who uses Ada??
Date: 10 Nov 92 12:48:20 GMT
Organization: The Cottage of the 2 Bears, Aberystwyth.

I'm one of those people who was taught Ada as a first language, and have since
tried other languages, finding that I much prefer Ada to other languages, (I've
tried Basic (ick!!), Pascal, C (who hasn't!), M68000 assembly, ML, POP11, and
various Robotic languages (VAL II, RAPT, and AL).

I'm now a postgraduate student at UCW Aberystwyth, Wales, where I also did my
first degree (Comp Sci). Ada is the taught language of this department, but there
are moves to incorporate some C into the second year, to give a broader experience
of programming languages! >8->

ciao

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|    _|--|_    | Disclaimer: I know nothing! Do you really know anything?  |
|     (\/)     +-------------------------------+---------------------------+
|      vv      | We've a Gremlin in the works! |      btk@aber.ac.uk       |
+--------------+-------------------------------+---------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: accs1@bagheera.mumath
Subject: Re: Who uses Ada??
Reply-To: accs1@bagheera.mumath
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 11:47:00 GMT

In article 9110003@hpavla.lf.hp.com, hawk@hpavla.lf.hp.com (Dave Hawk) writes:
>In article <1992Nov3.191829.22803@csusac.csus.edu> cs13517@athena.ecs.csus.edu writes:
>>Who uses Ada because they want to, not
>>because they were told to?
>>
>>Kevin Metcalfe
>
>How about those of us that want to use Ada, but are told to use C?


Or the ones which want to use Ada but they can get only C/C++ for their AMIGA.
Is there any Ada Compiler for AMIGAs ?

Frank

Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
Subject: Re: Who uses Ada??
Organization: The World
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 16:55:17 GMT

   With regard to Dr. Feldman's list of use of Ada in non-mandated areas,
his parody of comparative analysis was perfect.  ANyone familiar with the
demographics of software in the real world will realize that even a list of
the use of Lisp and Prolog commercial applications, and probably Forth also,
exceeds the list and LOC counts for the Ada list.  Cheers, cheers for such
a good parody !!!!

Greg Aharonian
-- 
**************************************************************************
Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimiztion
P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.object
From: jldh@sei.cmu.edu (Jorge Luis Diaz-Herrera)
Subject: Re: OOD, Ada, and Inheritance
Organization: The Software Engineering Institute
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 16:36:19 GMT


In article <1992Nov9.145313.18741@cis.ohio-state.edu>, weide@elephant.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bruce Weide) writes:
|> The questions about inheritance in Ada, and especially the responses
|> about inheritance being "simulated" in Ada, are interesting.  Those
|> who are REALLY interested in this issue would do well to consider
|> whether inheritance (as commonly practiced in OO languages) is
|> something you ought to want; see the paper by J.P. Rosen in the Nov
|> 1992 issue of Comm of the ACM.
|> 
|> Cheers,
|>     -Bruce

Furthermore, look at the following paper:
"Object-oriented Software Reuse: the Yoyo Problem" David Taenzer, et al
Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, Sept./Oct. 1989, pp 30-35.

jld-h
--..--
From: uesu03@giac1.oscs.montana.edu (Lou Glassy)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Who uses Ada??
Keywords: n
Date: 12 Nov 92 18:00:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: coe.1992Nov12.180059.9574
Organization: Montana State University, Bozeman  MT

Various people write various things about using or choosing Ada,
to which michaeln replied:

!Hmm... yes, I'd be interested to see who uses Ada by choice. I've
!been trying to use it for months now and really trying to keep an
!open mind about it, but I really, honestly haven't been able to
!see any merit in the language whatsoever. 
   [stuff deleted]

I am using Ada to write a subset Fortran-90 compiler.  Why Ada?

For me, there are a couple of factors:  economics and performance.

Economics.  I'm writing a compiler.  I'd like it to be correct, and I'd
like to spend as little time (money) as I can to make it.  It's true
that correct code can be written in any language, but where I have
found Ada shines, is the amount of 'built-in' correctness Ada requires
just to get the program to COMPILE.  The other distant option [for
choice implementation language] is one of the Modula family.  Although
I'm only just beginning to learn about Ada's ability to re-use generic
procedures, I can see already that this will help me crank out a decent
product faster.  (I have done only a few KSLOC of Modula-2, and
generics in Modula strike me as being of the "cross-your-fingers"
variety.  :-)

[ no, gcc -Wall -ansi -pedantic  + lint doesn't give you the 
  same level of rigor as Ada, in my limited experience. ]

Performance.  In the best of all possible worlds, I'd be using a pure
functional language [eg Hope, Haskell]... Unfortunately, I don't know
the functional idiom well enough to use it for major projects, and
compilers for functional languages are relatively rare [an interpreted
F90 compiler would be a bit slow, I'd think].  Someday, I'd like to
learn either Haskell, Hope, or ML, and be able to use these languages
(and the functional programming paradigm) to produce compilers... but
I'm not there yet.

I'm only a student; my experience pales by comparison with most others
who read and post to this group.  Still, I'd like to think my rationale
for choosing Ada is as sound as it is simple:  "Life is too short for
programming reliable applications in C." :-)

[for what it's worth, I'd written small programs (<5KSLOC each) in
 Common Lisp, Scheme, Modula-2, Fortran77, C, J, and Pascal.  Ergo,
 my choice of Ada for the project at hand is based on some (small)
 knowledge of the alternatives.]

Lou.

-- 
Lou Glassy (uesu03@giac1.oscs.montana.edu)   Watch the field behind the plow
Earth Sciences Department                    Turn to straight, dark rows
Montana State University                     Put another season's promise
Bozeman, Montana 59715 USA                   In the ground...  --Stan Rogers
Xref: sparky comp.lang.tcl:1802 comp.lang.perl:6946 comp.lang.scheme:2573
From: brent@ssd.csd.harris.com (Brent Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl,comp.lang.perl,comp.lang.scheme
Subject: Re: Closures, Object-Oriented Equivalence, New version of Perl and TCL
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:47:40 GMT
Organization: Harris Computer Systems

thayer@cs.columbia.edu (Charles Thayer) writes:

> For example, in Scheme, a 'define' saves the current environment and
> leaves the ability to reach the enclosing (dynamic) environment:

> ;; code from Scheme and the Art of Programming 
> (define (adder x) (lambda (y) (+ x y))) 
> (define add8 (adder 8)) 
> (add8 3) ==> 11

That's not quite right.  DEFINE does not save the current environment.
It only binds a value to a variable.  

When a closure is created with LAMBDA it effectively "remembers" the
current environment.  The environment doesn't always need to be saved,
though.  We only need to save the value of free variables within the
body of the LAMBDA expression.  If there are no free variables, we
don't need to keep any extra environment around.

--
Brent Benson                     
Harris Computer Systems
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
From: karl@NeoSoft.com (Karl Lehenbauer)
Subject: Re: Parsing "C" code in TCL ???
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 06:20:42 GMT
Keywords: Interp

In article <37572@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu> palkar@reef.cis.ufl.edu (MMP) writes:
>void trial (int K, int M)
>{
>if(M==1){
>	for (i=0;i<K;i++)
>		printf("%d \n",K);
>}
>else {
>	for (i=0;i<K;i++)
>		printf("%d \n",K*(K-1));
>}
>}
>How do I convert TRIAL in a Tcl command. Do I have recompile everything (Tcl );

Yes, you have to relink Tcl.  This command would look something very close
to the following:

int
Tcl_TrialCmd (clientData, interp, argc, argv)
    ClientData  clientData;
    Tcl_Interp *interp;
    int         argc;
    char      **argv;
{
    int M, K;

    if (argc != 3) {
        Tcl_AppendResult (interp, "wrong # args: ", argv [0], 
                          " K M", (char *) NULL);
        return TCL_ERROR;
    }

    if (Tcl_GetInt (interp, argv[1], &M) != TCL_OK)
        return TCL_ERROR;

    if (Tcl_GetInt (interp, argv[1], &K) != TCL_OK)
        return TCL_ERROR;

    if (M == 1) {
	for (i = 0; i < K; i++)
	    printf("%d \n",K);
    } else {
	for (i = 0; i < K; i++)
	    printf("%d \n",K*(K-1));
    }
    return TCL_OK;
}

Then arrange for this to be called:

    Tcl_CreateCommand (interp, "trial", Tcl_TrialCmd, (ClientData)NULL,
                      (void (*)())NULL);

There is a document included in Extended Tcl, extended/man/CmdWrite.man,
that describes how to write C extensions for Tcl.
-- 
-- Email info@NeoSoft.com for info on getting interactive Internet access.
"It took no computation to dance to the rock 'n roll station."
-- VU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
From: thielman@calspan.com (Carol Thielman)
Subject: Creating and Import file from an xygraph plot
Organization: Calspan Advanced Technology Center
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 14:42:49 GMT

      I am attempting to create a file depicting the information in
      a xygraph plot.  This file can be in one of two formats 
      1) postscript with a preview immage or 2) raster format.  I
      have looked at the output from the postscript function in xygraph
      and it does not contain a preview image.  Has anyone done this or
      have any ideas about the easiest way to create these files?

Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl