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Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,news.answers,comp.answers
Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nic.hookup.net!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!ajpo.sei.cmu.edu!cla-faq
From: cla-faq@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (Ada Info. Clearinghouse)
Subject: comp.lang.ada FAQ 2/2
Message-ID: <1993Dec16.140159.5948@sei.cmu.edu>
Followup-To: poster
Summary: comp.lang.ada Frequently Asked Questions. (Does *not*
get into programming questions.)
Sender: netnews@sei.cmu.edu (Netnews)
Organization: Ada Information Clearinghouse
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 14:01:59 EST
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Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.lang.ada:15962 news.answers:15911 comp.answers:3060
Archive-name: comp-lang-ada/cla-faq2
comp.lang.ada Frequently Asked Questions part 2 of 2
Effective date: 15 Dec 93
20) Is there a list of good Ada books?
Just for a list of texts, etc. (no evaluations or
recommendations), you might take a look at the ADABOOKS.HLP file
on the AdaIC Bulletin Board and in the public/ada-info directory
on the AJPO host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu).
Books for use in class (and others):
(from mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael B. Feldman))
As co-chair of the SIGAda Education Committee, and a denizen of
the Internet newsgroups, I am often asked to give references for
"Ada textbooks." This list responds to these many queries. It
is far from exhaustive, merely a selected list of 26 books being
used successfully in undergraduate computer science courses.
The six books in the Group 1 are written especially for students
without programming experience, who are learning Ada as their
first language. Most of these can also cover at least part of a
typical CS2-level course. The seven books in Group 2 use Ada as
their language of discourse but are "subject-oriented:" data
structures, file structures, compilers, comparative languages.
The thirteen books in Group 3 are either "Ada books" focusing on
the language features or more general books that use Ada, at
least in part, but do not fit obviously into a standard
curriculum "pigeonhole."
I invite you to add to the list. Please write your annotated
entry in the form I have used here and write or e-mail it to me.
I will include it in my next version and credit you as a
co-compiler of the list.
Disclaimers: I wrote two of the texts listed here; I hope the
annotations are impartial enough. And any annotated
bibliography is selective and opinionated. Your mileage may
vary.
Group 1: Books Suitable for a First Course in Programming
Bover, D.C.C., K.J. Maciuas, and M.J. Oudshoorn.
Ada: A First Course in Programming and Software Engineering.
Addison-Wesley, 1992.
This work is, to our knowledge, the first Ada book to emerge
from Australia, from a group of authors with much collective
experience in teaching Ada to first-year students. A number of
interesting examples are presented, for example, an Othello
game. The book is full of gentle humor, a definite advantage in
a world of dry and serious texts. In the book's favor is the
large number of complete programs. On the other hand, it is
rather "European" in its terseness; American teachers may miss
the pedagogical apparatus and "hand-holding" typically found in
today's CS1 books. Generic units are hardly mentioned.
Culwin, F.
Ada: a Developmental Approach.
Prentice-Hall, 1992.
This work introduces Ada along with a good first-year approach
to software development methodology. Much attention is paid to
program design, documentation, and testing. Enough material is
present in data structures and algorithm analysis is present to
carry a CS2 course. A drawback of the book is that the first
third is quite "Pascal-like" in its presentation order:
procedures, including nested ones, are presented rather early,
and packages are deferred until nearly the middle of the book.
This is certainly not a fatal flaw, but it will frustrate
teachers wishing a more package-oriented presentation. The
programs and solutions are apparently available from the author.
Feldman, M.B., and E.B. Koffman.
Ada: Problem Solving and Program Design.
Addison-Wesley, 1991.
This work combines the successful material from Koffman's CS1
pedagogy with a software-engineering-oriented Ada presentation
order. Packages are introduced early and emphasized heavily;
chapters on abstract data types, unconstrained arrays, generics,
recursion, and dynamic data structures appear later. The last
five chapters, combined with some language-independent algorithm
theory, can serve as the basis of a CS2 course. A diskette with
all the fully-worked packages and examples (about 180) is
included; the instructor's manual contains a diskette with
project solutions.
Savitch, W.J. and C.G. Petersen.
Ada: an Introduction to the Art and Science of Programming.
Benjamin/Cummings, 1992.
This is a straightforward adaptation of the well-known Savitch
Pascal books. Ada is introduced in a Pascal-like order, with
subtypes and packages introduced halfway through the book. This
is purely a CS1 book. The final chapter covers dynamic data
structures. There is no coverage of unconstrained array types;
generics are introduced at the halfway point to explain Text_IO,
then dropped until the final chapter. The authors intended this
book to provide a painless transition to Ada for teachers of
Pascal; one wishes they had taken advantage of the chance to
show some of the interesting Ada concepts as well. Program
examples from the text are available on disk, but only as part
of the instructor's manual; a solutions disk is available for a
fee from the authors.
Skansholm, J.
Ada from the Beginning.
Addison Wesley, 1988.
This book was one of the first to use Ada with CS1-style
pedagogy. There are excellent sections on the idiosyncracies of
interactive I/O (a problem in all languages), and a sufficient
number of fully-worked examples to satisfy students. Generics,
linked lists and recursion are covered at the end; there is no
tasking coverage, but one would not expect this at CS1-level.
Volper, D., and M. Katz.
Introduction to Programming Using Ada.
Prentice-Hall, 1990.
This book uses a heavily "spiraled" approach to Ada, and is
designed for a 2-semester course, covering nearly all of Ada
eventually. There are lots of fully-coded examples, and good
pedagogical sections on testing, coding style, etc. If you like
spiraling, you'll like this. The down side is that you can't
find all you need on a given subject in one place. It's at the
other end of the scale from the "Ada books" that follow the Ada
Language Reference Manual (LRM) order.
Group 2: Other Books Intended for Undergraduate Courses
Ben-Ari, M.
Principles of Concurrent and Distributed Programming.
Prentice-Hall 1990. (OS/concurrency)
In my opinion, this is the best introduction to concurrency on
the market. Ada notation is used for everything, but the focus
is on concurrency and not on Ada constructs per se. I liked the
CoPascal notation of the first edition better, but this book is
still great. A software disk is promised in the preface; I had
to work quite hard to get it from the publisher, which finally
had to express-ship it from England. The software comes with a
tiny Ada-ish interpreter, complete with Pascal source code,
adapted from Wirth's Pascal/S via CoPascal. There are also some
real Ada programs, most of which I've tested and found correct
and portable.
Feldman, M.B.
Data Structures with Ada.
Prentice Hall, 1985 (now distributed by Addison-Wesley).
(CS2/data structures)
This book is a reasonable approximation to a modern CS2 book:
"big O" analysis, linked lists, queues and stacks, graphs,
trees, hash methods, and sorting, are all covered. The Ada is a
bit old-fashioned, especially the lack of generics; the book was
published before compilers could handle generics. The packages
and other programs are available free from the author. The book
is currently under revision with Addison-Wesley and should
appear in 1993.
Fischer, C., and R. LeBlanc.
Crafting a Compiler.
Benjamin Cummings, 1988. (compilers)
This book uses Ada as its language of discourse and Ada/CS, a
usefully large Ada subset, as the language being compiled. If
you can get the "plain Pascal" tool software by ftp from the
authors, you'll have a good translator-writing toolset. Skip
the Turbo Pascal diskette version, which is missing too many
pieces to be useful. I've used the book since it came out with
both undergrad and graduate compiler courses; it embodies a good
blend of theory and "how it's really done" coding. Students
like it. The authors have recently published a second version,
which uses C as its coding language but retains Ada/CS as the
language being compiled.
Lomuto, N.
Problem-Solving Methods with Examples in Ada.
Prentice-Hall, 1987. (algorithms)
Inspired by Polya's classic How to Solve It, this book can make
a nice addition to an Ada-oriented algorithms course. It makes
too many assumptions about students' programming background to
use as a CS1 book, and doesn't teach enough Ada to be an "Ada
book." But it makes nice reading for students sophisticated
enough to handle it. I'd classify it as similar to Bentley's
Programming Pearls.
Miller, N.E. and C.G. Petersen.
File Structures with Ada.
Benjamin/Cummings, 1990. (file structures)
Designed for a straightforward ACM-curriculum file structures
course, this book succeeds at what it does. There are good
discussions of ISAM and B-tree organizations. The software can
be purchased a low cost from the authors; it seems to
approximate in Ada all those C-based file packages advertised in
programmer-oriented trade publications.
Schneider, G.M., and S.C. Bruell.
Concepts in Data Structures and Software Development (with Ada
Supplement by P. Texel).
West, 1991. (CS2/data structures)
This work is not, strictly speaking, an Ada book; rather, it is
a solid, language-independent approach to modern CS2. The
language of discourse in the book is a Pascal-like ADT language
rather like Modula-2 in style; some examples are coded in legal
Pascal. The Ada supplement makes it usable in an Ada-based
course, but the supplement is rather too terse (100 pages of
large type) for my taste, and insufficiently well keyed to the
book chapters. The supplement's effectiveness would be greatly
enhanced by full translations to Ada of a large number of the
book's examples.
Sebesta, R.W.
Concepts of Programming Languages.
Benjamin Cummings, 1989. (comparative languages)
If you've been around for a while, you might remember the late
Mark Elson's 1975 book by the same title. This is similar: a
concept-by-concept presentation, with -- in each chapter --
examples taken from several languages. There is a nice
impartial presentation of Ada along with the others. I
especially like the chapters on abstraction and exception
handling. The book covers -- comparatively, of course -- most
of the lanuages you'd like to see, including C, Lisp, Smalltalk,
etc., with nice historical chapters as well. The book is
readable; my students like it. Our undergraduate and graduate
courses both use it as a base text.
Group 3: A Selection of Other Ada-Related Books
Barnes, J.
Programming in Ada. (3rd edition)
Addison Wesley, 1989.
Barnes' work has been one of the most popular "Ada books." Some
students find it hard to see how the pieces fit together from
Barnes' often fragmentary examples; it is difficult to find
complete, fully-worked out, compilable programs. A version is
available with the entire Ada Language Reference Manual bound in
as an appendix.
Booch, G.
Object-Oriented Design, with Applications.
Benjamin Cummings, 1991.
This is a good comparative introduction to the "object-oriented
(OO)" concept. The first half gives a balanced presentation of
the issues in OO Design; the second half gives nontrivial
examples from Ada, Smalltalk, C++, CLOS, and Object Pascal. The
author tries to sort out the difference between object-based
(weak inheritance, like Ada) and object-oriented (like C++)
languages. My only real complaint is that Booch should have
worked out at least some of his case studies using several
different languages, to highlight the similarities and
differences in the language structures. As it is, each case
study is done in only a single language. The good news is that
the book is remarkably free of the hyperbolic claims one
sometimes finds in the OO literature. I think this book could
be used successfully in a second- level comparative languages
course.
Booch, G.
Software Components with Ada.
Benjamin Cummings, 1987.
This work is an encyclopedic presentation of data structure
packages from Booch's OOD point of view. It is great for those
who love taxonomies. It's not for the faint-hearted, because
the volume of material can be overwhelming. It could serve as a
text for an advanced data structures course, but it's thin in
"big O" analysis and other algorithm-theory matters. The book
is keyed to the (purchasable) Booch Components.
Booch, G.
Software Engineering with Ada. (2nd edition)
Benjamin Cummings 1987.
Another of the classical "Ada books." Introduces Booch's OOD
ideas. Not for use to introduce Ada to novices, in my opinion;
there are some nice fully-worked case studies but they begin too
far into the book, after long sections on design, philosophy,
and language elements. The earlier chapters contain too much
fragmentary code, a common flaw in books that follow the LRM
order.
Bryan, D.L., and G.O. Mendal.
Exploring Ada, Volumes 1 and 2.
Prentice-Hall, 1990 and 1992 respectively.
This is an excellent study of some of the interesting nooks and
crannies of Ada; it sometimes gets tricky and
"language-lawyerly." Volume 2 takes up tasking, generics,
exceptions, derived types, scope and visibility; Volume 1 covers
everything else. The programs are short and narrowly focused on
specific language issues. If you like Bryan's "Dear Ada" column
in Ada Letters, you'll like this book. It is certainly not a
book for beginners, but great fun for those who know Ada already
and wish to explore.
Burns, A.
Concurrent Programming in Ada.
Cambridge University Press, 1985.
I used this book for years in my concurrency course. It's
roughly equivalent to Gehani's book, but its age is showing.
Cambridge Press is not always easy to get books from, especially
in the US.
Cohen, N.
Ada as a Second Language.
McGraw Hill, 1986.
This book is a quite comprehensive exploration of Ada which
follows the LRM in its presentation order. My graduate students
like it because it is more detailed and complete than
alternative texts. It's an excellent book for students who know
their languages and want to study all of Ada. There are good
discussions of "why's and wherefore's" and many long,
fully-worked examples.
Gauthier, M.
Ada: Un Apprentissage (in French).
Dunod, 1989.
I found this an especially interesting, almost philosophical
approach to Ada. The first section presents Ada in the context
of more general laguage principles: types, genericity,
reusability. The second section introduces testing and
documentation concerns, as well as tasking; the third considers
generics and variant records in the more general context of
polymorphism. For mature Ada students in the French-speaking
world, and others who can follow technical French, this book can
serve as a different slant on the conventional presentations of
the language. An English translation would be a real
contribution to the Ada literature.
Gehani, N.
Ada: an Advanced Introduction (2nd edition).
Prentice-Hall, 1989.
I've always liked Gehani's literate writing style; he knows his
languages and treats Ada in an interesting, mature, and balanced
fashion. This book comes with a diskette sealed in the back of
the book, which is advantageous because the book has numerous
nontrivial, fully-worked examples.
Gehani, N.
Ada: Concurrent Programming (2nd edition).
Silicon Press, 1991.
This is a less formal, more Ada-oriented presentation of
concurrency than the Ben-Ari work. I use both books in my
concurrency course; its real strength is the large number of
nontrivial, fully worked examples. Gehani offers a nice
critique of the tasking model from the point of view of an OS
person. The preface promises the availability of a software
disk from the publisher.
Nyberg, K.
The Annotated Ada Reference Manual. (2nd edition)
Grebyn Corporation, 1991.
This is the definitive work on Ada legalities, because it
presents not only the full text of the LRM but also the official
Ada Interpretations. These commentaries, interleaved with the
LRM text, have been approved and promulgated by the Ada Board
and the various standards organizations, and are binding upon
compiler developers. I recommend this book as an essential
volume in the library of every serious Ada enthusiast.
Shumate, K.
Understanding Ada. (2nd edition)
John Wiley, 1989.
This would make a CS1 book if it included more overall pedagogy,
independent of language constructs. Otherwise it is a nice
introduction to Ada in fairly gentle steps. Lots of completely
worked examples, right from the start. Doesn't follow the LRM
order, which is great.
Watt, D.A., B.A. Wichmann, and W. Findlay.
Ada Language and Methodology.
Prentice-Hall, 1987.
This work presents some interesting programming projects, and
the coverage of design and testing--at the level of a first-year
student--is quite good. The first third of the book
concentrates heavily on classical control and data structures,
leaving exceptions and packages until the "programming in the
large" material in the second third. CS2 teachers will find too
little concentration on algorithm analysis. On the other hand,
tasking and machine-dependent programming are covered. Like the
Shumate work, this book would make a suitable introduction to
Ada for students with a semester or so of programming
experience; it "jumps in" too quickly to satisfy the needs of
neophytes and is not well-tailored to CS1 or CS2 needs.
21) Where can I get language translators?
The AdaIC maintains a Products and Tools Database on its
bulletin board (703/614-0215), and one of the categories is
translators. (The list of products should not be considered
exhaustive; if you wish to suggest additions, please contact the
AdaIC.) Besides access to the database via the bulletin board,
you can also call the AdaIC (800-AdaIC-11 or 703/685-1477) and
ask for a customized search.
In addition to all the usual caveats, however, it should also be
noted that translation itself is a controversial issue.
When a project makes the transition to Ada from some other
language, one question that arises is whether to translate older
code into Ada. Among the immediate considerations are how much
of the code can in fact be translated by a program intended for
that purpose, versus how much will still require re-coding by
hand. And will the translated code suffer a significant loss in
speed of execution? Further, a project must consider whether
the translated code will reflect sound software engineering and
be readily understandable and modifiable. Or will the
translated code be merely "Fortranized Ada" or "Cobolized Ada",
or the like, possibly retaining limitations present in the
earlier code? Portability is also a problem.
The resolution of such issues will require an understanding of
the earlier code, an appreciation of the similarities and
differences between its language and Ada, and an evaluation of
the translation program under consideration.
22) What is the status of the POSIX/Ada work?
(from emery@mitre.org (dave emery))
The IEEE approved IEEE Standard 1003.5-1992 in June 1992. This
is the Ada Binding to the facilities defined in ISO
9945-1:1989/IEEE 1003.1-1990, the POSIX System Services.
IEEE Standards Committee P1003.5 is now working on Ada bindings
to IEEE draft standards 1003.4, Real-Time Extensions and
1003.4a, Threads Extensions. Current plans call for an IEEE
ballot in October 1993, with IEEE approval in September 1995.
For more information, contact the P1003.5 Chairman, Jim Lonjers
(lonjers@vfl.paramax.com, 805/987-9457).
23) How can I get a copy of POSIX/Ada? Is it available via FTP?
(from emery@mitre.org (dave emery))
You can buy a copy of the standard from the IEEE. The order
number is "SH 15354", and the mailing address is "IEEE Service
Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331". They will
accept credit-card orders at 1-800/678-4333. The cost is $62.50
+ $5.00 s/h ($43.75 + $4.00 s/h for IEEE Members).
Current IEEE policy prohibits electronic distribution of IEEE
standards. Proceeds from the sale of IEEE standards help
support the IEEE standards program. However, The POSIX P1003.5
committee has been able to work out an arrangement with the IEEE
to make the POSIX/Ada package specifications available for
distribution via e-mail and anonymous FTP from the AJPO host
(ajpo.sei.cmu.edu). Look in the public/bindings/POSIX
directory. The AJPO files are also mirrored at the PAL. (See
29) for more on the PAL, 25) for anonymous FTP.)
24) Where can I get Ada benchmark programs?
In addition to the information below, you may also wish to look
at the AdaIC flyer "How to Obtain Benchmark Performance Test
Suites and Results", flyer V15, file benchmrk.hlp.<date> on the
AJPO host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu). For more on the AdaIC and
downloading files, see questions 14), 15), and 25).
(from pd@SEI.CMU.EDU (Patrick Donohoe))
a. The Ada Evaluation System:
The Ada Evaluation System (AES) may be obtained from the British
Standards Institute at the following address:
Software Product Services
Software Engineering Department
BSIQA
P.O. Box 375
Milton Keynes MK14 6LL
United Kingdom
Tel: 0908 220908
UUCP: sed@bsiqa.uucp
(Internet: bsiqa!sed@uunet.uu.net)
As of February 1993, the current version is the DIY-MAPSE-01
version. It is available at a cost of 3,000 pounds sterling.
BSI also offers a validation service at a cost of 24,000 pounds
sterling. Principal documents are a User's Manual, a Reference
Manual, and a Test Description Document.
The Ada Evaluation System (AES) was merged with the Ada
Compiler Evaluation Capability (ACEC) under a joint agreement
between the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom and the
Department of Defense of the United States that was signed in
June of 1991. The merged product has been released as the Ada
Compiler Evaluation System (ACES), which is the latest version
of the ACEC.
b. The Ada Compiler Evaluation Capability/Ada Compiler
Evaluation System:
The Ada Compiler Evaluation System (ACES) may be obtained
from:
Data and Analysis Center for Software (DACS)
Attn: Document Dataset Ordering
Kamen Sciences Corporation
P.O. Box 120
Utica, NY 13503-0120
Tel: 315/734-3696; Fax: 315/734-3699
Internet: dacs@kaman.com
There are three documents: the User's Guide, the Reader's Guide,
and the Version Description Document. The total cost for the
software (on 6250-bpi 9-track VMS Backup tape) and documentation
is 100 US dollars.
ACES is also available for downloading via anonymous FTP from
the AJPO host computer, where it can be found in the
/public/aces directory. It can also be downloaded from the
Public Ada Library (PAL -- see question 29).
c. Hartstone Benchmarks:
Electronic-mail requests for Hartstone should be sent to the
following Internet address:
hartstone-info@sei.cmu.edu
The reply message will contain full details of how to obtain
source code and documentation by various means, including
anonymous ftp. There is no charge for the Hartstone source
code.
For people without Internet access, the address to send requests
to is:
REST Transition Services
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Phone: 412/268-7787
Hartstone source code may also be retrieved from the PIWG
bulletin board. (See below.)
d. The PIWG Benchmarks:
The ACM Performance Issues Working Group (PIWG) benchmarks may
be obtained in one of three ways:
1. Via anonymous ftp from the ajpo.sei.cmu.edu machine.
Users should issue the command "ftp ajpo.sei.cmu.edu"
and log in using the word "anonymous" as the login name
and an identifying string (e.g., the user's e-mail
address) as password. Change directory ("cd" command)
to the "public/piwg/piwg_11_92" directory and use the
ftp file-transfer commands to retrieve the files. The
README file contains information about using the
benchmarks.
2. Via the PIWG bulletin board.
Ideally, users should access this from a PC (rather
than a dumb terminal) using a modem capable of sending
and receiving at 1200 baud or higher. The number of
the bulletin board is 412/268-7020. Once connected to
the bulletin board, users will be able to navigate
their way around the system using simple menus that the
system provides. The point of contact for this service
is Gene Rindels, 412/268-6728.
3. Via a written request or telephone request to the
following service:
PIWG Distribution
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Tel: 412/268-7787
As of February 1993, the current release of the PIWG
suite is the one dated 11/92. There is no charge for
the PIWG benchmarks. Documentation for the PIWG
benchmarks consists principally of the READ.ME file
distributed with the suite and comments in the
individual test programs and command files. There is
also additional information about the PIWG suite in the
Winter 1990 special edition of Ada Letters (Vol. X,
No. 3, special edition on Ada Performance Issues).
25) The AJPO host has many Ada information files available for
downloading by anonymous FTP. But I don't have FTP service on
the Internet host where I have an account. Is there any way I
can get those files?
The AJPO host, ajpo.sei.cmu.edu, will provide mail-server
capabilities on an experimental basis. The available services
provided by this automatic mail server are: services, Re, help,
info, man, directory, and file-request. To request a service,
send e-mail to "ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu" and place its name in
the Subject line of the mail message, followed by any needed
parameters. The mail server will respond to your request with
either the information you requested or an error message.
The following are common examples on how to request services
from the AJPO host mail server:
----------------------------------------------------------------
1) To get "help" --
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: help
----------------------------------------------------------------
2) To get "man" pages of a particular service, such as
"directory" --
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: man directory
This service takes as a parameter the name of a service, and
returns a manual page on that service.
----------------------------------------------------------------
3) To get a "directory" listing of the AJPO anonymous ftp area
(/public) --
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: directory
The "directory" service takes as an optional parameter a file or
directory name, and returns the results of an "ls -l" on that
parameter. For example, to get a listing of the
/public/ada-info directory you would submit a message with the
Subject of:
Subject: directory ada-info
The filename pattern may include wildcards as defined by the C
shell. For example, to get a listing of the /public directories
beginning with "p" you would submit a message with the Subject
of:
Subject: directory p*
----------------------------------------------------------------
4) Use "file-request" to get /public/README file --
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: file-request README
The "file-request" service takes as an optional parameter a
filename, and will return the contents of the file. Text files
are returned verbatim, while binary files are encoded via the
Unix "uuencode" command. Large files (greater than 1000 lines
long) will be split into multiple mail messages. For example,
to get the file "README" in the /public/ada-info directory you
would submit a message with the Subject of:
Subject: file-request ada-info/README
----------------------------------------------------------------
Below is a sample response to a "help" request.
From: FTP Mail Server <ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu>
Message-Id: <9301141628.AA26473@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu>
To: adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: Re: help
In-Reply-To: <9301141628.AA26462@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
You have sent electronic mail to the Ada Joint Programs Office
automatic mail server. This server is based on the
ServiceMail(tm) Tookit from Enterprise Integration Technologies.
In general, you may request a service by placing its name in the
Subject line of a mail message, followed by any needed
parameters. The mail server will respond to your request with
either the information you requested or an error message.
Here is a brief description of the available services:
services: This service returns a list of the available
services.
Re: This service discards all messages with "Re:" in
the subject line. This is to prevent mail
loops.
help: This service returns this help message.
info: This service returns this help message.
man: This service takes as a parameter the name of a
service, and returns a manual page on that
service.
directory: This service takes as an optional parameter a
file or directory name, and returns the results
of an "ls -l" on that parameter. The root of
the file structure is the AJPO anonymous FTP
area.
file-request: This service takes as an optional parameter a
file name, and will return the contents of the
file. The root of the file structure is the
AJPO anonymous FTP area. Text files are
returned verbatim, while binary files are
encoded via the Unix "uuencode" command. Large
files (greater than 1000 lines long) will be
split into multiple mail messages.
Try 'man <service>' to get more information on a particular
service. Please report bugs and other problems to
ftpmail-request@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu.
26) What is ASIS?
The Ada Semantic Interface Specification is a layered
vendor-independent open architecture. ASIS queries and services
provide a consistent interface to information within the Ada
Program Library created at compile time. Clients of ASIS are
shielded and free from the implementation details of each Ada
compiler vendor's proprietary library and intermediate
representation.
The latest working draft for ASIS is ASIS 1.1.0, dated July
1993. The ASIS Working Group (ASISWG), under sponsorship of the
AJPO, intends to evolve this working draft into an ISO standard
complementing the Ada 9X standard. The current ASIS working
draft is based on Ada 83. Your comments are welcome, if you
wish to see replies to your comments, please join the e-mail
discussion group (discussed below) first.
27) How can I find out more about ASIS? Can I take part in development?
There is an electronic mail discussion forum for the ASISWG:
asis@stars.reston.paramax.com
This forum is also where announcements of ASISWG meetings will
appear. To have your e-mail address added to this forum, send
e-mail to:
asis-request@stars.reston.paramax.com
Include your preferred e-mail address, name, telephone number,
and surface-mail address.
A separate, announcements-only, mailing list is available for
those that do not wish to participate in the technical
discussions. That list is asis-info@stars.reston.paramax.com.
To have your name added to the info list, send e-mail to:
asis-info-request@stars.reston.paramax.com
28) How can I get hold of ASIS?
ASIS 1.1.0 (along with the earlier version 1.1) is avaiable for
anonymous FTP from ajpo.sei.cmu.edu. It is available, as a
series of files, in the public/asis directory.
If you have Internet FTP access, run your FTP program, your log
might look something like this:
$ ftp ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Name (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu:you): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:you@your-company.com
ftp> cd public/asis/v1.1.0
ftp> binary
ftp> get asis_1.1.0.asc
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for /bin/compress.
(799382 bytes).
....
ftp> bye
(The "binary" command is not always necessary. Some host ftp
programs drop form-feed characters. The binary command will
prevent this behavior.)
If you do not have Internet ftp access, the AJPO host provides
mail-server capabilities. To get more information about the
mail-server, send e-mail to "ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu", and
address your message as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: help
To get a copy of the /public/asis/README file, address your
e-mail as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: file-request asis/README
To get a "directory" listing of /public/asis/v1.1.0, address
your e-mail as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: directory asis
To get any of the various files, e.g.,
/public/asis/v1.1.0/asis_1.1.0.asc.ps,
address your e-mail as:
To: ftpmail@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
Subject: file-request asis/v1.1.0/asis_1.1.0.asc.ps
The filename pattern may include the "*" wildcard.
All files have been Unix compressed. If you drop the .Z
extension in the FTP get command (as in the example above), FTP
should decompress on the fly. If you get the .Z file, type
"uncompress <filename.Z>" before viewing or printing the files.
The files currently available include:
asis_1.1.0.ada.Záááááá- full interface, includes all Annexes, in
a form suitable for compilation with an
Ada 83 compiler
asis_1.1.0.asc.Záááááá- full interface listing, includes all
Annexes, line-numbered, 7-bit ASCII, 369
pages
asis_1.1.0.asc.ps.Zááá- Postscript version of the .asc file
asis_1.1.0.index.Záááá- line-number/function-name cross-index
for interface, 7-bit ASCII
asis_1.1.0.index.ps.Z - Postscript version of the .index file
asis_1.1.0.decom.Záááá- just the Data Decomposition Annex
interface
asis_1.1.0.decom.ps.Z - Postscript version of the .decom file
asis_1.1.0.bnf.ps.Zááá- "ASIS/LRM Crossreference", Ada 83 LRM
BNF notation correlated with ASIS
interfaces, Postscript. (Still
in progress, final version expected in
Q4'93.)
asis_1.1.0.imp.ps.Zááá- "ASIS: Detailed Semantics and
Implementatation Requirements",
additional discussion of the ASIS
interface semantics, implementation
considerations, and requirements, should
be read by application programmers as
well, PostScript. (Still in progress,
final version expected in Q4'93.)
Every asis_1.1.0 file larger than about 30Kb is also available
as a group of smaller files.
29) Are there any free, public-domain, or other general-access software
repositories that contain Ada source code and information on reuse?
There are a number of them, among them AdaNet and the Public Ada
Library.
Public Ada Library (formerly Ada Software Repository):
Formerly the Ada Software Repository (ASR), the Public Ada
Library (PAL) is a collection of programs, components, tools,
general information, and educational materials; taking up more
than 100 megabytes, it contains the source code for
approximately 355 distinct items as documented in its Master
Index. Previously housed on the SIMTEL20 host computer, it is
now located at Washington University at St. Louis's host
(wuarchive.wustl.edu -- which had been a mirror site for the
ASR). The PAL is available for anonymous ftp.
The PAL has its own FAQ, a copy of which is stored on the AJPO
host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu, in directory public/comp-lang-ada, file
name public-ada-library). It is also available on rtfm.mit.edu,
which stores FAQ files posted to news.answers.
AdaNet:
(from mprice@rbse.Mountain.Net (Margie Price))
AdaNET is a component of the Repository Based Software
Engineering (RBSE) Program sponsored by NASA's Technology
Utilization Division. It is a public-domain reuse library
containing value-added software from ASR (PAL), STARS, JPL, many
educational institutions, and various other sources. Our
non-software information includes relevant research papers,
standards, and technical reports.
AdaNET also distributes components on floppy disks. All of its
services are free of charge.
For more information, contact AdaNET Client Service at
1-800/444-1458 or lacey@rbse.mountain.net.
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