home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!monmouth.edu!moncol!conn
- From: conn@moncol.monmouth.edu (Prof R Conn)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.vhdl,comp.answers,news.answers
- Subject: Public Ada Library (with VHDL support) FAQ
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 3 Feb 1997 11:17:07 GMT
- Organization: Monmouth University, W. Long Branch, NJ 07764
- Lines: 466
- Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
- Message-ID: <5d4hfj$7qa@monmouth.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: moncol.monmouth.edu
- Summary: Public Ada Library (PAL) Frequently Asked Questions
- Keywords: Public Ada Library, FAQ, PAL, Ada, VHDL, VHSIC, Integrated Circuits
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.lang.ada:55791 comp.lang.vhdl:11667 comp.answers:24100 news.answers:93730
-
- Archive-name: computer-lang/Ada/pal-vhdl-faq
-
- Date of this FAQ: 24 January 1997
- Public Ada Library (PAL) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Posting Frequency: Monthly
- Last Update: 24 January 1997
-
- The Public Ada Library (PAL) is a distributed library of Ada and VHDL
- software, courseware, and information that contains about 2.0 BILLION
- bytes of material (mainly in compressed form). All items in the PAL
- have been released to the public with unlimited distribution and are
- freeware in most cases (the exceptions are shareware). The PAL is
- managed by Professor Richard Conn at Monmouth University in New Jersey
- under contract to the Ada Joint Program Office, Defense Information
- Systems Agency, U.S. Department of Defense. The central PAL site on the
- WUARCHIVE host computer can be reached through the following URLs:
-
- http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/languages/ada/pal.html
- ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/languages/ada/
- ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/languages/vhdl/
-
- The PAL is a distributed library, and mirror (duplicate) sites are
- available on the Internet so that if one site is down or sluggish in
- responding, users may switch to an alternate. The mirror sites include:
-
- http://www.cdrom.com/pub/ada/pal.html
- ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/ada/
- ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/vhdl/
- http://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/PAL/ada/pal.html
- ftp://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/PAL/ada/
- ftp://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/PAL/vhdl/
-
- This is a short version of the PAL FAQ, designed specifically for
- distribution via electronic mail, which addresses the following topics:
-
- . Welcome to the Public Ada Library (PAL)
- . What is WUArchive?
- . What Electronic Mailing Lists Support the PAL Users?
- . What Documentation is Available to Help the PAL User?
- . What are Review Codes?
- . How Do I Handle the Various Types of Files in the PAL?
-
- A longer, more detailed version of the PAL FAQ (which addresses more
- questions and issues) can be accessed through the pal.html file
- identified above via a pushbutton. A Postscript version of this longer
- FAQ is also available in the directory languages/ada/userdocs/faq in the
- PAL.
-
- =======================================================
- Subject: Welcome to the Public Ada Library (PAL)
-
- The Public Ada Library (PAL) is a library of Ada and VHDL* software,
- courseware, and documentation on the Internet-based host computer named
- wuarchive.wustl.edu (WUARCHIVE). The PAL is located in the directories
- languages/ada and languages/vhdl if you access WUARCHIVE by FTP, archie,
- gopher, the World Wide Web, or FTPMAIL, or in the directories
- /archive/languages/ada and /archive/languages/vhdl if you access
- WUARCHIVE by NFS.
-
- * VHDL stands for VHSIC Hardware Description Language, where
- VHSIC stands for Very High Speed Integrated Circuit
-
- The purposes of the PAL are:
-
- * to help make Ada-oriented and VHDL-oriented software, courseware, and
- documentation that has been released for public distribution (as
- shareware, freeware, GNU Copyleft, etc) readily available
-
- * to support Ada and VHDL educators by providing a convenient mechanism
- for them to exchange material and ideas
-
- * to support the Ada and VHDL user community in general by providing a
- resource in support of their activities
-
- The support for the PAL is part of a DoD contract, entitled "Defining
- and Exploring an Efficient Distributed Process for the Reuse of Ada
- Software Components and Tools in a Global Theater" and numbered
- DAAB07-94-C-D009. This contract was awarded to Monmouth University in
- West Long Branch, New Jersey, through the Army's Communications
- Electronics Command (CECOM) Software Engineering Directorate (SED) with
- funding provided by the Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO), Defense
- Information Systems Agency (DISA), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
- Professor Richard Conn of the Center for Technology Development and
- Transfer of Monmouth University is the principal investigator on the
- contract.
-
- Many organizations have developed cooperative relationships with the
- PAL, contributing time, effort, user support services, and artifacts to
- the PAL and its users either directly or indirectly. These
- organizations include:
-
- * the Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO)
- * the Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)
- * the Ada and Software Engineering Education Team (ASEET)
- * the Army Reuse Center (ARC)
- * the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control,
- Communications, and Intelligence (ASD/C3I)
- * the Asset Source for Software Engineering Technology (ASSET)
- * the Comprehensive Approach to Reusable Defense Software (CARDS)
- * Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers (CNAM) in Paris, France
- * the DoD's Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
- * the Electronic Library Services and Applications (ELSA, formerly AdaNET)
- * George Washington University (GWU)
- * the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL)
- * the Software Engineering Institute (SEI)
- * the Software Reuse Repository at the University of Maine
- * the Special Interest Group for Ada of the Association for Computing
- Machinery (ACM/SIGAda)
- * Team Ada
- * the University of Alabama (UA)
- * the VHDL Repository at the University of Cincinnati (UC)
- * Walnut Creek CDROM
-
- The PAL can be accessed by a wide variety of mechanisms. These
- mechanisms include, but are not limited to, the following:
-
- * anonymous FTP to WUARCHIVE and the mirror sites
- * NFS mounts on WUARCHIVE
- * Gopher servers
- * HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) servers for the World Wide Web
- on WUARCHIVE and the mirror sites
- * FTPMAIL email servers
- * ASSET distributions and customer support
- * ELSA distributions and customer support
- * AdaIC distributions and customer support
- * Walnut Creek CDROM electronic distributions and customer support
-
- General Disclaimer
- ------------------
-
- All software, courseware, documentation, and other items of information
- in the PAL are provided "AS IS" without any expressed or implied
- warranties whatsoever unless their individual documentation states
- otherwise. No warranties as to performance, merchantability, or fitness
- for a particular purpose exist.
-
- Because of the diversity of conditions under which this software may be
- used, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The
- user is advised to test the software and courseware thoroughly before
- relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk and liability of
- using this software, courseware, and documentation.
-
- In no event shall any person or organization be held responsible for any
- direct, indirect, consequential, or inconsequential damages or lost
- profits.
-
- =======================================================
- Subject: What is WUARCHIVE?
-
- The host computer named wuarchive.wustl.edu (WUARCHIVE) is a Digital
- Equipment Corporation (DEC) Alpha AXP 3000 Model 400. It is equipped
- with 192M bytes of RAM and over 65G bytes of disk space, and it is able
- to support anonymous FTP sessions, remote NFS mounts, a gopher server,
- and an HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) server for the World Wide
- Web.
-
- WUARCHIVE is owned by the Office of Academic Computing and Networking,
- Washington University in Saint Louis. The Office of Academic Computing
- and Networking and the National Science Foundation have jointly paid for
- the hardware of the machine and for the services of the support
- personnel at Washington University in Saint Louis. Additional funding
- for the hardware has also been provided by the AMINET User's Group, the
- Defense Information Systems Agency, and Monmouth University.
-
- The maintainers of the archives which originate on WUARCHIVE are mainly
- volunteers, working on an unfunded basis. The support personnel who
- maintain the operational support software, including the software which
- keeps the mirrors up to date, are funded by the Office of Academic
- Computing and Networking and the National Science Foundation grant.
-
- We wish to express our gratitude to Digital Equipment Corporation for
- the sale of the DEC Alpha at a substantial discount and to the National
- Science Foundation for its grant in support of WUARCHIVE. We also wish
- to express our thanks for funding for extension to the disk drives on
- WUARCHIVE to the AMINET User's Group, the Defense Information Systems
- Agency, and Monmouth University.
-
- =======================================================
- Subject: What Electronic Mailing Lists Support PAL Users?
-
- MAIL.WUSTL.EDU is the electronic mail list server for users of the PAL.
- A separate computer from WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU (on which the PAL is
- located), MAIL's purpose in life from the point of view of the PAL user
- is to manage the electronic mailing lists supporting him.
-
- The List Processor is a program on MAIL which manages Lists (Electronic
- Mailing Lists). The user can send commands to the List Processor, and
- it will respond by performing actions for him (such as adding him to a
- List, removing him from a List, and sending him a message naming all the
- lists supported by the List Processor). The user can send email
- messages to the List, and the subscribers to the List will receive these
- messages.
-
- GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS - SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, and WHICH
- ========================================================
- If you wish to subscribe to an electronic mailing list, send an
- electronic mail message to the List Processor:
-
- listproc@mail.wustl.edu
-
- Leave the subject line blank and place the following line into the body
- of this message:
-
- subscribe <electronic mailing list name> <your name>
-
- Example:
- subscribe pal-announce John J. Smith
-
- Begin this line in column 1. Your return address will be used as the
- address to which announcements will be sent. A list of the electronic
- mailing lists for the PAL user community is included below.
-
- You will receive a message back from the List Processor, telling you of
- the success or failure of your request.
-
- Once subscribed, a user can send electronic mail to all subscribers of a
- List by sending email to the list's name at mail.wustl.edu; example:
-
- ada-train@mail.wustl.edu
-
- This, of course, only works if the List is bidirectional. The ANNOUNCE
- Lists are unidirectional (read-only from the point of view of the
- subscribers). Subscribers cannot post email messages to the ANNOUNCE
- lists - only the moderator of the ANNOUNCE lists can post messages.
-
- If you wish to unsubscribe from an electronic mailing list, send an
- electronic mail message to the List Processor:
-
- listproc@mail.wustl.edu
-
- Leave the subject line blank and place the following line into the body
- of this message:
-
- unsubscribe <electronic mailing list name>
-
- Example:
- unsubscribe pal-announce
-
- If you wish to find out what electronic mailing lists you subscribe to,
- send an electronic mail message to:
-
- listproc@mail.wustl.edu
-
- Leave the subject line blank and place the following line into the body
- of this message:
-
- which
-
- HELP
- ====
- The List Processor is a very flexible tool which gives you control over
- how you receive messages from the lists to which you subscribe. For
- example, you may receive messages as they are posted or in a digest form
- once a day. A 20-page user's manual for the List Processor is contained
- in the PAL in the directory ada/userdocs/listproc.
-
- To find out what commands the List Processor can respond to, send an
- email message to:
-
- listproc@mail.wustl.edu
-
- which contains an empty subject line and one line in the body of the
- message (starting in the first column):
-
- help
-
- EMAIL LIST ARCHIVES
- ===================
- Additionally, as of February 1996, all PAL email lists are archived
- automatically by the List Processor. You can obtain copies of messages
- posted to the Lists on and after February 1996 by sending commands to
- the List Processor (see the user's manual for details).
-
- A PARTIAL LIST OF ELECTRONIC MAILING LISTS AVAILABLE FROM
- listproc@mail.wustl.edu
- =========================================================
-
- These lists are for the PAL user community. For a more complete list of
- the mailing lists available to your site, send a mail message to
- listproc@mail.wustl.edu which contains the command "LISTS".
-
- Pal-Announce - Announcements concerning the Public Ada Library
- (PAL). These include additions to, changes to and other
- announcements concerning the PAL. You can not post messages here.
-
- Ada-Train - This list is for the discussion of topics concerning Ada
- training and education. This is a general discussion list.
-
- ASEET - The ASEET email list supports members of ASEET (The Ada and
- Software Engineering Education Team) and others interested in the
- activities of ASEET. ASEET materials are available from the
- Public Ada Library (PAL), including an archive of previous messages
- posted to this list.
-
- Reuse - This list is a bidirectional mailing list for those people
- interested in software reuse technology. This includes, but is
- not limited to, the fields of designing for reuse, object-oriented
- reuse methods, reuse tools and environments, generic code
- architectures, domain-specific kits, reuse education, technology
- transfer, formal methods, certification of reusable components,
- and management issues as they pertain to reuse.
-
- Wuarchive-Announce - Notification of any planned downtime or service
- changes for wuarchive.wustl.edu. The only announcements from this
- list will be from local staff or archivers.
-
- =======================================================
- Subject: What Documentation is Available to Help the PAL User?
-
- PAL Catalog, FAQ, and Database Information
- ==========================================
-
- The subdirectory userdocs/catalog in the PAL contains a number of
- documents of interest to the users of the PAL. The key user documents
- in this subdirectory are:
-
- CAT_DOC.ZIP and CAT_PS.ZIP - a catalog, complete with table of
- contents and index, of the contents of the PAL in the form
- of a book; CAT_DOC.ZIP contains the chapters as ASCII text,
- CAT_PS.ZIP contains the chapters as Postscript files that
- print 2 pages per physical page in landscape (1/2 the number
- of hardcopy pages required by CAT_DOC.ZIP)
-
- TAXONOMY.ZIP - a taxonomy of the PAL in ASCII and Postscript
-
- CSV_DB.ZIP - contains a Comma-Separated-Value (CSV) ASCII
- text file which can be read into database managers like
- dBase IV and spreadsheets like LOTUS 1-2-3 to allow the user
- to scan for items of interest offline; the contents of this
- ZIP file are CSV_DB.DOC and CSV_HDR.DOC, where DB contains the
- data and HDR contains structure information
-
- The subdirectory languages/ada/userdocs/catalog/id_files contains the
- Item Description files from which the above files were created. Item
- Description files exist for each item in the PAL. File names in
- id_files which have the same prefix refer to the same item.
-
- PAL Frequently Asked Questions
- ------------------------------
- The PAL Frequently Asked Questions (PAL FAQ) list answers many of the
- more common questions asked by users of the PAL. It can be found in the
- PAL in HTML, HTM, Postscript, and ASCII text formats in the
- languages/ada/userdocs/faq directory in the files faq.html, faq_a.htm,
- faq.ps, and faq.txt (faq.html and faq_a.htm are identical long versions
- of the FAQ, faq.ps is a Postscript version of faq.html, and faq.txt is a
- shorter version designed for distribution via email). The file faq.txt
- can also be found in ASCII text form on rtfm.mit.edu under
- pub/usenet/news.answers/computer-lang/Ada/pal-vhdl-faq.
-
- PAL Card Catalog in HTML
- ------------------------
-
- The Public Ada Library Card Catalog is presented using HyperText Markup
- Language (HTML). In this form, a user can view the Card Catalog by
- using a World Wide Web client, such as Netscape. The movement and
- search capabilities provided by the client can be used to move through
- the PAL Card Catalog.
-
- The directory languages/ada contains pal.html and pal_a.htm, the main
- World Wide Web home pages for the PAL and convenient entry points for
- the PAL Card Catalog. The file pal.html contains the full, "glossy"
- home page, while pal_a.htm contains the same information for users
- limited to 8-dot-3 file names. The "Contents" button in these files
- opens up the PAL Card Catalog at the top level of its table of contents,
- showing the main categories of material in the PAL. By selecting any
- one of these categories, the user is shown a second level of the table
- of contents which details the items available under the selected
- category. The "Index" button in these files opens up the PAL Card
- Catalog at the top level of its segmented index. There are two indexes
- in the PAL Card Catalog - the segmented index is a series of HTML files
- for fast loading, where each file contains the index entries which share
- a common first character (that is, all the "A" entries are in one file,
- all the "B" entries in another, and so on), while the unsegmented index
- is a single HTML file for extensive searching, where all the index
- entries are in one large file (and can take a long time to load through
- the Web but is easily loaded if accessed through a CDROM).
-
- The PAL Card Catalog is also available on the Walnut Creek Ada CDROM
- distributions of the PAL, so users may browse the CDROM using either the
- HTML or HTM version of the PAL Card Catalog. The Walnut Creek Ada CDROM
- is formatted using the ISO-9660 standard CDROM format for a maximum of
- portability between different platforms, and the Rock Ridge extensions
- to this standard have been included. This means that the CDROM uses
- 8-dot-3 file and directory names, but, if your system supports both long
- file names and the Rock Ridge extensions to ISO-9660, the CDROM appears
- with long file and directory names. For users of the CDROM without the
- Rock Ridge extensions (such as MSDOS, Microsoft Windows 3.x, and
- Microsoft Windows 95 users), the PAL Card Catalog should be accessed
- using the HTM (as opposed to HTML) files. For the convenience of the
- users of the Walnut Creek Ada CDROM, the files 00_cd.html and
- 00_cd_a.htm at the top-level of the CDROM, where 00_cd.html may be used
- by those with long file names and support for the Rock Ridge extensions
- and 00_cd_a.htm may be used for those without such support.
-
- =======================================================
- Subject: What are Review Codes?
-
- The database maintained on the PAL includes Review Codes which are used
- to indicate to some extent the level of trust which may be placed in a
- particular item. These Review Codes are defined as follows:
-
- Code Meaning
- ---- -------
-
- AR AdaNET Report is available (usually in the ZIP file); AdaNET
- Reports contain information on experiences in compiling this
- item
-
- C1 The Certifier_1 tool has analyzed the Ada source code in this
- item; the full format of this entry is "C1 n.n g" where n.n is
- the version number of Certifier_1 and g is the letter grade
- given by Certifier_1 (A, B, and C are satisfactory; D and F are
- not satisfactory)
-
- CMM Comment Files (*.CMM, *.CM2, etc) are available which describe
- one or more problems with the item
-
- CS Compiled Successfully (followed by an indication of the
- Ada compiler used in parentheses) by the reviewer
-
- ES Executed Successfully (followed by an indication of the
- target computer used in parentheses if different from the
- systems mentioned in the CS list) by the reviewer
-
- MF-CODE Missing File - Code; one or more files of source code are
- missing; the item cannot be compiled without these files
-
- MF-DATA Missing File - Data; one or more files used as input data when
- the compiled code runs are missing; the item cannot be
- executed without these files
-
- NR Not Reviewed
-
- OK This is a text file which is believed to be an accurate copy
- of the original
-
- RI Review Incomplete (only some results of a partial review
- are posted)
-
- SDA Report generated by the Ada System Dependency Analyzer is
- available; if followed by a number from 1 to 5 (e.g., SDA5),
- the number indicates the relative quality of the item, where
- 5 is of the highest quality
-
- not negation prefix (e.g., not ES or not OK)
-
- =======================================================
- Subject: How Do I Handle the Various Types of Files in PAL?
-
- A number of file formats have come into play among the files in the PAL:
- MSDOS and UNIX ASCII text files
- PAGER2 Files
- ZIP Files
- GNU ZIP Files
- TAR Files
- Compressed (*.Z) Files
- Compressed or GNU ZIPped TAR Files
-
- If you have questions about these file formats, see the file README.TOO
- in the top level of the the toolkit directory. The subdirectories under
- the toolkit directory contain programs for various platforms that allow
- you to work with these files in various ways.
-
- Richard Conn, PAL Manager | conn@wuarchive.wustl.edu
- Opinions expressed herein are my own and not necessarily those of anyone else.
- ==============================================================================
-