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Subject: comp.lang.ada FAQ 1/2
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Archive-name: comp-lang-ada/cla-faq1


comp.lang.ada Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 1 of 2

Effective date: 15 Dec 93

Currently, the comp.lang.ada FAQ is maintained by the Ada Information
Clearinghouse ([e-mail]).  It is available for
downloading via anonymous FTP from the AJPO host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu)
from the public/comp-lang-ada subdirectory as files cla-faq1 and
cla-faq2.  It's also available on rtfm.mit.edu, which archives FAQ
files posted to news.answers.

(For notes on FTP, or the lack thereof, see questions 25) and 26).)

Frequency: This will be posted every other month to comp.lang.ada,
news.answers, and comp.answers.

Other than minor editing/typo changes, changes since the last FAQ are:
3) added note on gnu-ada mode (available in PAL); 6) added information
on OS/2 version of GNAT; 9) deleted reference to Ada 9X Bulletin Board
(now closed -- 9X files are available on AJPO host), and corrected ZIP
code; 14) corrected host address (ftp.cnam.fr); 16) address changes,
added reference (R.R.  Software); 18) e-mail address change for
EVB/GRAMMI; 23) POSIX/Ada package specifications available on AJPO
host and PAL; 19) Alsys address update.

Individuals are encouraged to submit both questions and answers.  In
many answers below, submitters are noted in parentheses at the
beginning of comments.  (Comments may be slightly edited.)

It should be noted that report of a product, service, or event, etc.,
does not constitute an endorsement by the AdaIC or the Ada Joint
Program Office.  Opinions expressed are those of the submitters.

Table of Contents:

   1) Where can I get a list of validated Ada compilers?
   2) Where can I get a yacc/ayacc grammar to read Ada code?
   3) Is there an Ada-mode for Emacs?
   4) You know, I think Ada could really benefit from having
      <choose_a_feature> from <choose_a_language>...
   5) I just saw a very anti-Ada post that I think is definitely
      wrong.  Why didn't anybody post a response to it?  Should I?
   6) Where can I get a public-domain Ada compiler or interpreter?
   7) Is Ada a registered trademark of the US government?
   8) I have seen the language name capitalized as ADA, as well as
      Ada.  Which is right?
   9) What is Ada 9X?
  10) What is Anna, and where can I get it?
  11) What is DRAGOON, and where can I get it?
  12) Does anyone have a list of commercial Ada projects?
  13) Are there versions of lex and yacc that generate Ada code?
  14) What ftp sites exist that contain information about Ada or Ada
      source?
  15) What organizations exist that deal with Ada and Ada issues?
      (Long)
  16) What cheap (<500$) Ada compilers are available?
  17) Are there any dial-up BBS systems that deal with Ada?
  18) Does anyone know where I can get bindings for Ada?  X-Windows?
      Others?  (See 22 and 23 for specific reference to POSIX.)
  19) Is there a list of Ada compiler vendor e-mail contacts?
  20) Is there a list of good Ada books?  (Long)
  21) Where can I get language translators?  And should I?
  22) What is the status of the POSIX/Ada work?
  23) How can I get a copy of POSIX/Ada?  Is it available via FTP?
  24) Where can I get Ada benchmark programs?
  25) The AJPO host has a lot of 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?
  26) What is ASIS?
  27) How can I find out more about ASIS?  Can I take part in
      development?
  28) How can I get hold of ASIS?
  29) Are there any free, public-domain, or other general-access
      software repositories that contain Ada source code and
      information on reuse?


 1) Where can I get a list of validated Ada compilers?

      (from [e-mail])

      By anonymous ftp from ajpo.sei.cmu.edu.  The latest list is in
      the /public/ada-info directory.  Only the latest list is kept;
      it has the name val-comp.hlp.ddmmmyy, where dd stands for date,
      mmm for month (3-letter abreviation), and yy stands for year.
      For example, the current list is val-comp.hlp.01Dec93.  If the
      list is updated during the month, the previous one is deleted
      and the date part of the name of the file will change.

 2) Where can I get a yacc/ayacc grammar to read Ada code?

      (from [e-mail] (Gary Morris @lone))

      [e-mail] has kindly sent in a yacc and lex
      grammar for Ada.  It's available via FTP from the archives at
      primost.cs.wisc.edu and via e-mail from the compilers server at
      [e-mail].

 3) Is there an Ada-mode for Emacs?

      (from [e-mail] (Heddy Boubaker))

      There are, in fact, 3 ada modes for emacs

      - There is a simple ada-mode shipped as part of the emacs
        distribution.

      - a more elaborate one from Steven D. Litvintchouk of Mitre
        Corp called electric-ada

      - and gnu-ada mode.  Here is a small description of the features
        of this mode:

          1/ Compile programs within emacs
          Run compiler as inferior of Emacs, and parse its error
          messages.  NOTE: I believe that this feature will only work
          with VADS, but it might have been tailored to work with
          other compilers.

          2/ Ada dired
          It supplies a form of dired that helps manage the VADS
          environment, and it adds ADA vads commands into ada mode.
          Unlike a previous dired-ada implementation, this version
          uses the existing dired mode functions except where there is
          unresolvable conflict.  Thus, this is more like a minor mode
          to dired.  Very important because on actual version of emacs
          19(beta), in fact lemacs (lucid emacs), dired has changed
          and we can no longer use gnu-ada mode :-(

          3/ you can consult Ada LRM(*) during parsing error message.
          (*)You can get one in wsmr-simtel20.army.mil or any
          mirror site.

          4/ smart indentation
          Tries hard to do all the indenting automatically.
          Emphasizes correct insertion of new code using smart
          templates.

          5/ Smart template commands (bnf)
          This is essentially a bnf processor/language-sensitive
          editor.  The next message will give you an ada bnf file that
          you can use within ada-mode to expand nonterminals.  But you
          can roll your own grammars (e.g., your design grammar or an
          ADL) and put them in *.bnf files ..
          ; The BNF rule set is stored as a list of rules.

          6/ debugging Ada programs within emacs
          A facility is provided for the simultaneous display of the
          source code in one window, while using a.db to step through
          a function in the other.  A small arrow "=>" in the source
          window, indicates the current line.

          7/ Move from procedure to procedure or package to package
          ...

          8/ tags Ada

          9/ and other things ...

      (from [e-mail] (Pascal OBRY))

      You can find the gnu-ada mode in ajpo.sei.cmu.edu cd
      /public/infoada/gnu file r1.06a-ada.tar.Z

      Also, you can now find the gnu-ada mode in the PAL. (See
      question 29).) It's under the subdirectory
      languages/ada/swtools/emacs/adamode.

 4) You know, I think Ada could really benefit from having
      <choose_a_feature> from <choose_a_language>
    or
    You know, I think Ada is clearly <inferior_or_superior> to
      <choose_a_language> because it has <choose_a_feature>

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      Such posts almost always result in religious wars about langauge
      and produce only wasted bandwidth.  PLEASE refrain from such
      posts unless you have a specific question about Ada.  For
      example, the following kind of question *is* appropriate: "In
      <choose_a_language> I can do <choose_a_feature>.  How would I go
      about doing this in Ada?"

 5) I just saw a very anti-Ada post that I think is definitely wrong.
    Why didn't anybody post a response to it?  Should I?

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      Ada apparently gets more than its share of attacks, probably due
      to its unique origins, and the fact that it is a requirement for
      some government software.  For the same reasons as in (4) above,
      PLEASE refrain from posting a response to these, unless you feel
      there is something of *significant* importance that you can
      contribute.  Posts containing factual corrections are probably
      OK, but posts like "Well, I've used Ada on many projects, and
      all have been very successful" accomplish nothing.  If you are
      really dead-set on driving your point home to the poster, you
      can do it via e-mail.

 6) Where can I get a public-domain Ada compiler or interpreter?

      You have choices: Ada/Ed for Ada 83, and GNAT for Ada 9X.

      (Strictly speaking, though, these aren't "public-domain".
      They're *free*, but they're under GNU "copyleft".  That means
      there's no warranty, and you're free to copy, modify, and
      distribute them; but you can't charge anyone, and distributed
      source code has got to be freely copyable, etc., by everyone
      else.)

      a.  The Ada/Ed interpreter for Ada 83 is available from the New
      York University host (cs.nyu.edu, Internet address
      128.122.140.24).  It's in the ftp/pub/adaed directory.  There's
      a version for UNIX-based machines, and a version for 386/486 DOS
      machines.

      Interpreter for Ada 83:
      (from [e-mail] (Michael Feldman))

      Ada/Ed is available for PCs, Unix-based machines, Amiga, and
      Atari systems.  Excerpt from the Ada/Ed README:

      Ada/Ed is a translator-interpreter for Ada.  It is intended as a
      teaching tool, and does not have the capacity, performance, or
      robustness of commercial Ada compilers.  Ada/Ed was developed at
      New York University, as part of a long-range project in language
      definition and software prototyping.  The project produced the
      first validated translator for Ada, in the form of an executable
      definition of the language written in SETL.  The SETL system
      served as design document and prototype for the C version
      [available from the NYU host].

      Ada/Ed was last validated under version 1.7 of the ACVC tests.
      Therefore it is not currently a validated Ada system, and users
      can expect to find small discrepancies between Ada/Ed and
      currently validated compilers.

      Apart from the 100-odd tests of ACVC 1.11 that Ada/Ed currently
      fails, the major deficiency of the system is that, being an
      interpreter, it does not implement most representation clauses,
      and thus does not support systems programming close to the
      machine level.

      b.  GW-Ada/Ed -- a souped-up version of Ada/Ed for 386/486 DOS
      machines.

      A new distribution of GW-Ada/Ed is available on WUARCHIVE.  This
      software can be acquired by anonymous ftp from
      wuarchive.wustl.edu, and is located in the directory
      languages/ada/compiler/adaed/gwu/9309/dos.

      This project was sponsored by The George Washington University,
      and in part by the United States Advanced Research Projects
      Agency (ARPA).

      This distribution contains the executables for GWAda, which
      consists of the NYU Ada/Ed translator/interpreter system for
      DOS, together with an integrated editor developed by Prof.
      Arthur Vargas Lopes of the Pontifical University at Porto
      Alegre, Brazil.  Lopes began his work on GWAda while he was a
      doctoral student at The George Washington University.  There is
      also a very nice extended runtime facility, with interesting
      kinds of source tracing.

      GWAda is being freely distributed at no charge.  In the near
      future the developers will make the source code available under
      the GNU General Public License.  Source code is not being
      provided because the system is still in the developmental stage.
      Source code for Ada/Ed itself is available from NYU and from
      WUARCHIVE.

      Note that you do not have to use the GWAda integrated
      environment, but can execute the various parts of NYU Ada/Ed
      from the DOS command line, as described in the NYU instructions.

      System requirements: IBM PC Compatible, 386 or 486, running
      MS-DOS or PC-DOS at least 3.6 MB available extended memory at
      least 5 MB free hard-disk space.

      c.1.  Ada 9X compiler -- The GNU Ada Translator (GNAT),
      availability: GNAT is available from the New York University
      host (cs.nyu.edu, Internet address 128.122.140.24).  It's in the
      ftp/pub/gnat directory.  There's a version for UNIX-based
      machines, and a version for 386/486 OS/2 machines.

      It's also available in Public Ada Library (PAL -- formerly the
      Ada Software Repository).  The PAL is located on
      wuarchive.wustl.edu (Internet address: 128.252.135.4).

      You can also get a copy from the AdaIC Bulletin Board.  But this
      is a dial-up operation (703/614-0215), and since the files
      sizes are large, connect times may be lengthy.  The bulletin
      board is best used as a back-up source for those who don't have
      Internet/FTP access.

      c.2.  Ada 9X compiler -- The GNU Ada Translator (GNAT), general:
      (extracted from "Free Source Code for GNAT 9X Compiler to be
      Available on Internet", by Robert Dewar and Edmond Schonberg,
      New York University, Ada Information Clearinghouse Newsletter
      August 1993)

      The Computer Science Department of the Courant Institute of
      Mathematical Sciences at New York University received a contract
      from the Ada 9X Project Office, under the direction of Christine
      M. Anderson, to develop a GNU/Ada system.  The work is being
      cosponsored by ARPA and the Ada Joint Program Office.

      Final delivery is due at the end of December 1993.  The first
      interim delivery will be at the Tri-Ada conference, Sept. 18th.

      The final delivery will be a full Ada-9X implementation with as
      much of the core language and annexes implemented as possible.
      Given the fact that Ada 9X will not be standardized until
      sometime in 1994, the December delivery might differ in small
      respects from the eventual international standard.

      At final delivery, the developers expect to demonstrate to the
      Ada community a reasonably complete and solid implementation of
      the core language, and at least part of the language annexes.
      This delivery will include full sources, and executables for at
      least the Sun Sparc and PC on OS/2.  (On PCs, GNAT will need a
      full 32-bit environment with several megabytes of memory.)

      There are a number of official GNAT net addresses:

      [e-mail]

      Send a message to this address to be placed on our external
      mailing list.  We send out progress reports, technical reports,
      digests of technical comments and other information.

      [e-mail]

      Send messages to this address for our general consideration.
      Where appropriate, we will digest these comments for
      redistribution to the external mailing list -- unless you
      specifically request that they be considered private.

      [e-mail]

      This address is to be used specifically to report problems with
      the currently available version of the GNAT system.  Please be
      as specific as possible in reporting problems.  Do not report
      missing features for now!

      c.3.  Ada 9X compiler -- The GNU Ada Translator (GNAT), OS/2:
      (Extracted from readme1.gnt file for the GNAT Nov 3, 1993,
      release.)

      The executables and sources for the OS/2 version of GNAT are
      split and compressed into two files, each of which can fit on
      one 3.5-inch high-density diskette.  Although it is possible to
      install GNAT on an OS/2 machine on FAT (MS-DOS-compatble)
      partition, such an installation will not be fully functional.
      In fact, GNAT does not support installations on FAT partitions.
      You will need about 8.5 MB of free disk space after you have
      copied the appropriate files to your hard drive.  About half of
      this amount is taken up by the source code.

      (In case you want to modify and re-compile GNAT, you will need
      about 24 MB of free disk space after you have installed GNAT for
      OS/2 and copied the necessary source files to your hard drive.)

 7) Is Ada a registered trademark of the US government?

      (from the AdaIC)

      No, but it used to be; there's a "certification mark", though,
      which is to be used only for validated compilers.

      Prior to November 30, 1987, the name "Ada" was a registered
      trademark.  In the December 1987 issue of the Ada Information
      Clearinghouse Newsletter, Ms. Virginia Castor, then Director of
      the Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO), announced that the
      Department of Defense would thereafter rely on a certification
      mark instead of a trademark.

      (The certification mark is a Pentagon-shaped symbol with a
      "Validated Ada" message, and can be seen on the documentation of
      validated Ada compilers.)

      The text of the 1987 AJPO announcement is available as an AdaIC
      file (trademrk.hlp.04Jun93) in the public/ada-info directory on
      the AJPO host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu).

8) I have seen the language name capitalized as ADA, as well as Ada.  Which
   is right?

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      The correct capitalization is Ada.  It's a proper name, for Ada
      Lovelace (1815-1852), who is regarded to be the world's first
      programmer.

      Using all-caps usually implies an acronym, and we are not
      talking about the American Dental Association :).

9) What is Ada 9X?

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      Ada 9X refers to the revised version of Ada.  (Ada 83 is the
      current ANSI/ISO standard.)  The Ada 9X Project Office is
      responsible for the revision, and is working closely with the
      international community to ensure Ada retains its ISO status.
      The Ada 9X process is very open.  Volunteer Reviewers are
      welcome and should contact [e-mail].  Many
      documents are available for downloading from the ada9x directory
      on the AJPO host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu -- see questions 25) and 26)
      for more information.)  For further information, contact the Ada
      9X Project Office, PL/VTES, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico 87117-5776.

      Ada 9X includes three major areas of enhancement: support for
      object-oriented programming, programming-in-the-large, and
      realtime systems.

      A great deal of attention is being focused on transitioning to
      Ada 9X.  The validation test suite will be available early (in
      draft form prior to ANSI/ISO approval with official release 3
      months after ANSI/ISO approval).  However, for a two-year period
      vendors will be able to focus on enhanced areas of the language
      that their customer base wants first; i.e., the first validation
      test suite will be modularly constructed.  Vendors are also
      being encouraged to release beta-versions of their Ada 9X
      implementations prior to validation.

      There will also be a GNU Ada 9X compilation system available in
      late 1993.  (See question 6).)

10) What is Anna, and where can I get it?

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      Anna is a language for formally specifying Ada programs.  It
      extends Ada with various different kinds of specification
      constructs from ones as simple as assertions, to as complex as
      algebraic specifications.  A whole lot of tools have been
      implemented for Anna, including:

      1.  The standard DIANA extension packages, parsers,
      pretty-printers.

      2.  Semantic checker (very similar to standard semantic checkers
      for programming languages).

      3.  Specification analyzer -- this is a tool used to test a
      specification for correctness before a program based on the
      specification is written.

      4.  Annotation transformer -- this transforms Anna specification
      constructs into checks on the Ada program that is developed
      based on the specification.  This tool is currently in the
      process of being enhanced so that it can handle at least all the
      legal Ada programs in the ACVC test-suite.

      5.  Runtime debugger -- The instrumented program output by (4)
      can be run with a special debugger that allows program debugging
      based on formal specifications.

      All tools have been developed in Ada and are therefore extremely
      portable.  Anna has been ported to many platforms, details of
      which can be obtained from the person who handles Anna releases.
      You can send e-mail to [e-mail] for
      answers to such questions.  Actually, there is also a mailing
      list -- [e-mail].  Send e-mail to the
      earlier address if you want to get on this list.

      One could view Anna and its toolset as a *very* significant
      enhancement of assertions that are provided in languages such as
      C (using the assert statement).  The enhancements are in the
      form of both (1) many more high level specification constructs;
      and (2) more sophisticated tool support.

      However, there are those who would not even wish to compare Anna
      with C assertions!  :-)

      The Anna tools may be found on the machine anna.stanford.edu in
      the anonymous ftp directory pub/anna.

11) What is DRAGOON, and where can I get it?

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      DRAGOON is a language, implemented as an Ada preprocessor (i.e.,
      generates pure Ada).  DRAGOON supports the development of Ada in
      a truly object-oriented manner, including complete support for
      multiple inheritance.  A very nice feature of DRAGOON not found
      in many OO languages is the concept of "behavioral" inheritance.
      This allows you to keep the concurrent behavior of object
      separated from the object class hierarchy.

      The book by Colin Atkinson, "Object-Oriented Reuse, Concurrency
      and Distribution: An Ada-Based Approach" (ACM Press, 1991, ISBN:
      0201565277), is very well written and describes the language
      succinctly and completely.

      For a copy of the preprocessor, you can contact:

      Mr. Andrea Di Maio
      TXT Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A.
      Via Socrate, 41
      20128 Milan, ITALY
      0039-2-27001001

12) Does anyone have a list of commercial Ada projects?

      (from the AdaIC)

      a.  The AJPO host on the Internet contains a report of
      Commercial Ada Users Working Group (CAUWG) of the Association
      for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Ada (ACM
      SIGAda).  Dated June 1993, the report is a survey of
      applications from around the world that are written in Ada.

      It is in the public/misc directory as file cauwg.txt.

      b.  The Ada Information Clearinghouse maintains a list of Ada
      projects that have submitted information for the AdaIC's Ada
      Usage Database.  It is only a sample of Ada projects, but it
      includes both commercial and government-related projects.
      Details on contacting the AdaIC are below (question 15).

13) Are there versions of lex and yacc that generate Ada code?

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      The Arcadia project produced aflex and yacc, that are written in
      Ada and produce Ada code.  These can be found in the STARS
      repository (source.asset.com -- see below), as well as other
      sites.

14) What ftp sites exist that contain information about Ada or Ada source?

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      Public Ada Library (formerly Ada Software Repository):
        wuarchive.wustl.edu
        Internet address: 128.252.135.4
      AJPO and AdaIC: ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
        Internet address: 128.237.2.253 (Note: The numerical address
                          is changing -- it may be out of date by the
                          time you get this.)
      Source for aflex and ayacc: liege.ics.uci.edu (~ftp/pub/irus)
        Internet address: 128.195.1.5, 128.195.13.1
      European Repository: ftp.cnam.fr
        Internet address: 192.33.159.6

      Also:
      STARS (Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems):
      source.asset.com
        Internet Address: 192.131.125.10
        Note: the ASSET host no longer takes anonymous FTP.  To
        request an account, contact: [e-mail]

15) What organizations exist that deal with Ada and Ada issues? (Long)

      (from the AdaIC)

      Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO)
      The AJPO is part of the Department of Defense; it facilitates
      the implementation of the DoD's Software Initiative (Ada)
      throughout the Services, and maintains the integrity of the Ada
      language.  (The AJPO sponsors the AdaIC.)

      The address is:
      Ada Joint Program Office
      The Pentagon, 3E1049
      Washington, DC 20301-3081
      703/614-0208 (autovon 224-0208)
      fax: [phone]

      The current Director and Deputy Directors are:

      Director:                         vacant

      Air Force Deputy Director,
      and Acting Director:              Maj M. Dirk Rogers
                                           ([e-mail])

      Navy Deputy Director:             vacant

      Army Deputy Director:             MAJ Charlotte Lee
                                           ([e-mail])

      Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)
      (from [e-mail] (Michele L. Kee))

      Ada Information Clearinghouse
      P.O. Box 46593
      Washington, DC 20050-6593
      1-800-AdaIC-11, 703/685-1477; fax: [phone]

      The Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC) provides a full
      spectrum of information on Ada to anyone interested in finding
      out more about the programming language.  IIT Research Institute
      operates the AdaIC for the Ada Joint Program Office (AJPO).  The
      AdaIC publishes a quarterly newsletter, which contains current
      news, Ada conference reports, announcements from the AJPO
      Director, and articles on projects using Ada.  If you would like
      to receive a copy of the AdaIC newsletter, please call and
      request a subscription.  There's no charge.  The AdaIC also
      regularly updates and publishes more than 70 separate
      information flyers.  Flyer topics include:

           Ada Validated Compilers
           Ada News and Current Events
           Ada Usage
           Ada 9X Project
           On-line sources of Ada Information
           Ada Bibliographies
           Ada Compiler Validation and Evaluation
           Resources for Ada Education and Training
           Ada Software, Tools, and Interfaces
           Ada Regulations, Policies, and Mandates
           Ada Historical Information

      One of the most commonly requested flyers is the Validated
      Compilers List.  This list, which is updated monthly, contains
      Ada compilers that have been validated by the AJPO.  For the
      most current information on validated Ada compilers, contact the
      AdaIC.

      *Practically all AdaIC flyers are available via anonymous ftp
      from the AJPO host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu, in the public/
      directories).*

      Association of Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on
      Ada (ACM SIGAda):

      SIGAda's bimonthly publication is Ada Letters: Non-members $37;
      (Annual ACM membership dues, $71; students, $21).  $15 per year
      to ACM members; $10 per year ACM student members.

      Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
      1515 Broadway
      New York, NY 10036
      212/869-7440

      SIGAda also has a number of committees and working groups on a
      variety of topics.

      ISO Working Group 9 (ISO-IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG9):
      This is a working group that deals with Ada within the
      Internation Standardization Organization.  Within WG-9, are
      several Rapporteur (rap) groups:

      CRG: Character Rapporteur Group - International Character Sets
      RRG: Real-Time Rapporteur Group - ExTRA
      NRG: Numerics Rapporteur Group - NUMWG packages
      SRG: SQL Interfaces Rapporteur Group - SAMeDL
      IRG: Information Systems Rapporteur Group - Decimal Arithmetic
      XRG: Ada 9X Rapporteur Group

      Ada Rapporteur Group (ARG):
      (from [e-mail])

      This is the group responsible for evaluating comments on the Ada
      standard.  Officially, the group is only developing a technical
      report addressing comments and questions concerning the ISO
      standard for Ada.  (Arcane ISO rules prevent the ARG or WG9 from
      issuing "official" interpretations of a standard.)  In practice,
      when a response to a comment is approved by WG9, the response is
      taken into account by the Ada Validation Office and affects the
      test suite.  The documents containing comments on the standard
      and ARG responses are called "Ada Commentaries" and are given
      numbers of the form AI-ddddd/vv, where vv is a version number.

      Comments and questions about the Ada standard should be sent to
      [e-mail], using the format specified in the
      Ada standard.  You can receive e-mail notification of an update
      to a commentary (optionally including the text of the
      commentary) by sending a request to
      [e-mail].  Commentaries are generally
      updated only a few times each year.  The text of all
      commentaries is available by anonymous ftp from the AJPO site in
      the account public/ada-comment.  A detailed discussion of ARG
      procedures and the format of commentaries can be found in the
      ada-comment account in the file arg-procedures.doc.  A
      reformatted copy of the Reference Manual that includes
      WG9-approved commentaries is available from Karl Nyberg
      ([e-mail]).

      Uniformity Rapporteur Group (URG):
      (from [e-mail] (David Emery))

      Responsible for evaluating Uniformity Issues (UIs).  UIs
      specify/recommend specific choices for the compiler implementor,
      where the language permits implementation freedom.  The
      "canonical example" is UI-8, on integer types.  This UI
      recommends that integers be at least 32 bits, and provides names
      for the other predefined integer types.  The goal of the URG and
      the UI's is to further Ada portability by providing uniform
      implementations of implementation-dependent features commonly
      used by Ada applications.

16) What cheap (<500$) Ada compilers are available?

      (See also question 6).)

      What follows is absolutely *not* exhaustive, but inexpensive
      compilers are available, and some vendors offer educational
      discounts.  Among those offering educational discounts are
      Alsys, DDC-I, Encore, Harris, IBM, Irvine Compiler, Meridian,
      PSS, Rational, R.R., Tartan, and TeleSoft (now part of Alsys).

      Meridian:
      Among choices for inexpensive compilers, Meridian offers one for
      $99.  (Meridian Software Systems (A Verdix Company), 205 Van
      Buren Street - 4th floor, Herndon, VA 22070; contact: Gary
      Newman, 810/653-2522, 703/318-5810.)

      Alsys (US pricing only):
      FirstAda for 286 DOS is $595.  It will run on 286 and higher,
      and will generate applications for any x86 PC.  Comes with a
      full toolset.  Alsys does run specials on it periodically.  Call
      Pat Michalowski at 619/457-2700 for more info.

      Alsys offers the same compilation system for $144 to qualified
      educational institutions under its LEAP program.  The program
      also offers substantial educational discounts on other Alsys
      products, as well as site license arrangements.  Contact Kathy
      Ruggiero at 617/270-0030 for more info.

      Rational:
      Rational provides free software (Rational Apex) to accredited
      educational institutions, including military academies, in the
      United States and Canada.  This is under its Software
      Engineering for Educational Development (SEED) program.  To
      receive information on the program, send your contact
      information via e-mail to [e-mail].

      R.R. Software:
      R.R.'s Janus/Ada Professional Development System -- 60386 MS-DOS
      -- regularly goes for $500.  (R.R« Software, P.O« Box 1512,
      Madison, WI 53701; contact: Randall Brukardt 608/251-3133;
      e-mail: [e-mail].)

17) Are there any dial-up BBS systems that deal with Ada?

      AdaIC BBS: (US) 703/614-0215 AUTOVON: 224-0215

      (from [e-mail] (Kurt Olender))

      AdaNet BBS: This is a free service that maintains e-mail
      connections for people not on the internet, an Ada source code
      repository, and a selection of other on-line Ada-related
      documents.  It is sponsored by NASA.  Call 800/444-1458 to
      register for access.

      (from [e-mail] (Susan Carlson))
      (Caveat: Telephone numbers can change without notice.  If we
      find out a number doesn't work, we'll note that, but leave the
      entry in until we're sure the service has actually been
      discontinued.  If you are aware of a better number, please let
      us know.)

      Naval Computer Telecommunications Command
      Tel: [phone] (DSN 564-7841)

      Air Force Software Technology Support Center (STSC) BBS
      Tel: [phone]
      Baud: 2400, 1200, 300
      Bits: 8
      Parity: None
      Stop Bits: 1

      ACM SIGAda Performance Issues Working Group
      PIWG Ada Benchmarks BBS
      Tel: [phone]

      Embedded Systems Programming Magazine BBS
      Tel: [phone]

18) Does anyone know where I can get bindings for Ada?  X-Windows?
    Others?  (See 22) and 23) for specific reference to POSIX.)

      General
      The AdaIC (question 15, above) has a report on "Available Ada
      Bindings".  It can be ordered in hardcopy as flyer S82, and it
      can be downloaded from the AdaIC Bulletin Board (703/614-0215)
      as BINDINGS.HLP.  It's also available by anonyomous ftp on the
      AJPO host (ajpo.sei.cmu.edu).

      X-Windows
      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      This question turns out to be pretty darn hard to answer easily.
      There are at least three variables that need to be filled:

      1) platform where you are going to be running.
      2) compiler you would like to use.
      3) Level/flavor of X you would like to run (e.g., just need
      bindings to Xlib, want Openlook as opposed to Motif, etc).

      Once you fill all three of the above, then you can start to get
      answers.  In order to keep the answer brief, I am simply going
      to list companies that offer such products, and locations where
      free versions are available.

      Before I give the list, I think a little history is in order.
      The first Xlib bindings that were publically available were done
      by SAIC for STARS.  This implementation had many bugs, but it
      was there, and it was free.  I believe that this version was
      eventually withdrawn from the STARS repository, and has now been
      replaced with a better one.  In addition, SAIC has done an Xt
      implementation based on these Xlib bindings (also for STARS).
      NOTE: the above description may well be inaccurate, and I
      welcome corrections.

      Now, for the list.
      NOTE: this list is currently "off the top of my head", and I
      welcome the addition of details and/or corrections.  I currently
      don't have time to go back through the comp.lang.ada archives to
      get full contact info on the companies I am listing below.  I am
      counting on their vigilance to see the FAQ and send me info.

      First off, there is a pretty complete list of available bindings
      for X as well as other stuff at the AdaIC.
      site: ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
      location: /public/ada-info/bindings.hlp.06Oct92
      access: anonymous FTP

      Free versions:
      STARS: bindings to Xlib and Xt.  Available on
      source.asset.com.
        Note: the ASSET host no longer takes anonymous FTP.  To
        request an account, contact: [e-mail]

      Non-free versions:
      SERC: bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
      contact: well![e-mail] (Scott Cleveland)

      Verdix: bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
      (Note that bindings to Xview are included with the SunAda Sun4
      compiler)
      contact: [e-mail] (Paul Moskowitz)

      ATC: bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
      contact: ???

      TeleSoft (now part of Alsys): bindings to Xlib/Xt/Motif
      (TeleWindows)
      (Note that bindings to Xview are included with the TeleSoft Sun4
      compiler)
      contact: [e-mail]

      X-based GUI (Graphical User Interface) Builders:
      Objective (OIS): Screen Machine
      contact: Phil Carrasco (703/264-1900)

      TeleSoft (now part of Alsys): TeleUSE
      contact: [e-mail]

      EVB Software Engineering, Inc. : GRAMMI
      contact : [e-mail]
                or [e-mail] with subject "send grammi"

      Sun Microsystems: DevGuide
      contact: ???

      SERC: UIL-to-Ada code generator
      (not really a GUI-builder, but works with several builders to
      generate Ada instead of other languages).
      contact: well![e-mail] (Scott Cleveland)

19) Is there a list of Ada compiler vendor e-mail contacts?

      Note: The AdaIC's Validated Compiler List now contains e-mail
      addresses for compiler-vendor points of contact.

      (from [e-mail] (Drew Johnson))

      Alsys sales (e-mail contact only): [e-mail] (Tom Erickson)
      Alsys sales (voice) Pat Michalowski
      Tel: [phone]

      Convex questions: [e-mail] (Brian Allison)
      Tel: [phone]

      Cray questions: [e-mail] (Dave Thersleff)
      Tel: [phone]
      Cray sales: [e-mail] (Sylvia Crain)
      Tel: [phone]

      Harris questions: [e-mail] (Jeff Hollensen)

      IBM/Ada questions: [e-mail] (Don Malcho)
      Tel: [phone]

      Intermetrics questions: [e-mail] (Mike Ryer)

      Irvine Compiler Corp (ICC) questions: [e-mail]

      Tartan questions: [e-mail] (Susan Englert)
      Tel: [phone]

      TeleSoft questions: [e-mail]
      Note that TeleSoft is now part of Alsys.)
      Tel: [phone]
      TeleSoft Sales: [e-mail] (Philippe Collard)
      Tel: [phone]

      Verdix questions: [e-mail] (Drew Johnson)
      Verdix sales information: [e-mail] (Paul Moskowitz)
      Tel: 800-BUY-VADS

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