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- Form U149-0794
- BYRONIN.TXT
-
- Ada Information Clearinghouse, 1-800/AdaIC-11, 703/685-1477
-
- Ada provides a high quality support for large programs developed by several
- developers.
-
- ADA USED TO DEVELOP "SUPER"- CAD SYSTEM IN THE HVAC INDUSTRY
-
- THE DEVELOPER
- Byron Informatik is dedicated to software development and consulting for
- engineering companies in the HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning)
- sector and for companies doing facility management. Its activities are now
- extending over Germany and Switzerland and will soon reach a European scale.
-
- THE ADA SYSTEM
- Byron Informatik is using the Alsys Ada development environment to develop a
- super-CAD system, namely an Integrated Engineering System. This system is far
- more than a regular CAD-system because all information about the objects are
- stored in a database. The CAD-like applications plugged into the database
- manipulate directly the objects in the database. There is no difference
- between applications offering the information CAD-like and textual. On the
- other hand normal CAD-Systems are storing the drawings in a separate internal
- file format. Even with a coupling to a database they tend to dominate the
- whole system.
-
- The Integrated Engineering System helps the design of premises to optimize
- heating, ventilation, and air conditioning effectiveness. The six-people team
- originally developed a kernel for the HVAC engineer. It combines a tight
- coupling between the integrated tools through an underlying object oriented
- database and a uniform user interface. The system allows an easy integration
- of new tools. The kernel also fits well for Facility Management tasks, namely
- Building and Cable Management.
-
- The project is now six years old and the software includes CAD-like features
- for the construction of schemes and 3-D plant and building models.
- Additionally, it enables you to make the relevant calculations on these models
- for heat loss of a building as well as dimensioning of pipes and radiators.
- In facility management applications, the dense information available in a
- fully developed building model is presented and used to organize
- administrative tasks (for instance, services and moves).
-
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE APPLICATION
- The application has been developed with the Alsys Ada compiler, AdaWorld for
- HP9000/700 following the Object-Oriented Design method (from Booch). It took
- about 300 man months for the six engineers to develop about 900,000 lines of
- code. The application has been developed with the help of several tools and
- third-parties: Object Store (Object Design) as Database, PHIGS (Figaro from
- Liant) and Xll (Motif for the user-interface). A TCP/IP communication network
- has been used for Object Store and X-Windows information exchange.
-
- ADA ADVANTAGES FOR THIS APPLICATION
- Ada was chosen because it perfectly meets the requirements of this
- application. "First, Ada is a standard which enables easy port on every
- platform. Second, it provides a high quality support for large programs
- developed by several developers. Third and finally, its safety concept like
- strong typing and packages is a key point since it allows package modification
- with affecting other program modules", says Mr. Duppenthaler, Project Manager.
- In addition, Byron Informatik developers took advantage of the reusability of
- code brought by the Ada generic features.
-
- ADA'S FUTURE WITH BYRON INFORMATIK
- With regards to the future, the application is going to be ported to other
- Unix workstations and PCs using Solaris. At the same time, the software will
- be loaded with enhanced capabilities. Convinced of the benefits of Alsys and
- Ada, Byron Informatik also plans to start a new application in Ada (a facility
- management tool) and is looking forward to using Ada 9X functionality.
-
- Thanks to Mr. Duppenthaler and Mr. Allenspach from Byron Informatik for
- presenting his experience with Alsys Ada.
-
- For further information, please contact:
-
- Ann Trib
- Alsys GMBH & Co.KG
- Kleinoberfeld 7
- D-75135 Karlsruhe
- Germany
- Tel: + 49 721 985 530
- Fax: + 49 49 721 985 5398
-
- Produced in cooperation with Ada Information Clearinghouse, Ada Software
- Alliance, and ACM SIGAda. Additional are available from the Ada Information
- Clearinghouse, at the address below.
-
- ***********************
-
- Copyright 1994. IIT Research Institute. All rights assigned to the U.S.
- Government (Ada Joint Program Office). Permission to reprint this flyer, in
- whole or in part, is granted provided the AdaIC is acknowledged as the source.
- If this flyer is reprinted as a part of a published document, please send the
- AdaIC a courtesy copy of the publication.
-
- Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)
- P.O. Box 46593
- Washington, DC 20050-6593
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- adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu; CompuServe 70312,3303
-
- The AdaIC is sponsored by the Ada Joint Program Office and operated by IIT
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-
- The views, opinions, and findings contained in this report are those of the
- author(s) and should not be construed as an official Agency position, policy,
- or decision, unless so designated by other official documentation.
-