What is SAMeDL?

What is SAMeDL?

[Alan Carruthers]

SAMeDL stands for SQL Ada Module Description Language, used to interface
Ada applications to SQL-based DBMS's.  That's the limit of my knowledge
on SAMeDL.  Does anyone know how I can find out more about SAMeDL?
-- 
Alan Carruthers                    alan@mda.ca

MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates
13800 Commerce Parkway
Richmond, B.C., Canada V6V 2J3
voice: (604) 278-3411  fax: (604) 278-4716

RE: What is SAMeDL?

[Thomas H. Stripe]

To: alan@mdavcr.mda.ca (Alan Carruthers)
Reply-To: stripeth@ss2.sews.wpafb.af.mil
Subject: Re: What is SAMeDL?


In article <4128@map.mdavcr.mda.ca>, you write:
|> SAMeDL stands for SQL Ada Module Description Language, used to interface
|> Ada applications to SQL-based DBMS's.  That's the limit of my knowledge
|> on SAMeDL.  Does anyone know how I can find out more about SAMeDL?
|> -- 
|> Alan Carruthers                    alan@mda.ca
|> 
|> MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates
|> 13800 Commerce Parkway
|> Richmond, B.C., Canada V6V 2J3
|> voice: (604) 278-3411  fax: (604) 278-4716


  You can contact LtCol David S Stevens at the following:

  AIRMICS
  115 O'Keefe Building
  Georgia Institute of Technology
  Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0800
  (404) 894-3110
  stevens@airmics.gatech.edu

-----------------

Thomas H Stripe
645 C-CSG/SCSL
3810 Communications Suite 1
Wright Patterson AFB, OH 45433-5707
(513) 255-4472
stripeth@ss2.sews.wpafb.af.mil

Re: What is SAMeDL?

[Peter G. Clark|M1004]

Alan Carruthers (alan@mdavcr.mda.ca) wrote:
: SAMeDL stands for SQL Ada Module Description Language, used to interface
: Ada applications to SQL-based DBMS's.  That's the limit of my knowledge
: on SAMeDL.  Does anyone know how I can find out more about SAMeDL?
: -- 
: Alan Carruthers                    alan@mda.ca

: MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates
: 13800 Commerce Parkway
: Richmond, B.C., Canada V6V 2J3
: voice: (604) 278-3411  fax: (604) 278-4716

Contact Marc Graham at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI):
   SEI
   Carnegie Mellon Univ.
   Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
   phone: 412/268-5800
   fax:   412/268-5758
   email: mhg@sei.cmu.edu (I think) or customer-relations@sei.cmu.edu

The most recent report that I know about is "Rationale for SQL Ada
Module Description Language SAMeDL," SEI-92-TR-016. There is also the
SAMeDL Reference Manual.

Peter Clark   pgclark@tasc.com
TASC
55 Walkers Brook Drive
Reading, MA 01867
phone: 617/942-2000   fax: 617/942-7100

Re: What is SAMeDL?

[Gary Funck]

In article <4128@map.mdavcr.mda.ca> alan@mdavcr.mda.ca (Alan Carruthers) writes:
>SAMeDL stands for SQL Ada Module Description Language, used to interface
>Ada applications to SQL-based DBMS's.  That's the limit of my knowledge
>on SAMeDL.  Does anyone know how I can find out more about SAMeDL?

Alan,  by now I'm sure others will have responded with contact
information for Marc Graham (marc@sei.cmu.edu), who has done most
of the groundwork for SAMeDL.  Also, I believe that the SAMeDL
docs.  are available via FTP from the Software Engineering Institute
(SEI).  The documentation will include the proposed ISO standard
for SAMeDL.

Perhaps not mentioned, will be the ANSI SQL Module Language Standard for
Ada, which is part of the Embedded SQL standard (along with the
ever popular ESQL/C, ESQL/COBOL, etc).  The Module Language defines
a mostly language independent way of defining "modules" that access
a database using SQL.  The modules correspond to Ada packages, and
the Ada implmentation of SQL Module Language maps modules directly
to packages.

ANSI SQL Module Language is a simpler, older standard.  When applied to
Ada, there are constraints on the types of parameters passed to
the Ada packages and this can constrain the Ada programmer's use
of the Ada type system.  Other than that, SQL Module Language is
an effective tool for accessing SQL capabilities from Ada (and other
languages).

SAMeDL counters the limitations of ANSI Module Language with
a fairly complex meta-description of "type templates" that amount
to a kind of type-checked macro facility.  These templates can
be expanded into Ada packages that in turn access the database
using SQL.  Intermetrics has done an implementation of SAMeDL,
also a German company, CCI, is supposed to be working on an
implementation (contact: Rudolf Landwehr, landwehr@cci.de).

Informix (among others) has an implementation of standard SQL Module
Language for Ada, with extensions aimed at accessing all the SQL
capabilities offered by the vendor (Informix in this case).  The
product name is Ada/SAME.  (SAME = Standard ANSI Module language
with Extensions).  Contact John Skier at Informix (johns@informix.com),
or your local Informix rep. for details.

Having been involved in the development of Ada/SAME, I'm quite
aware of the limitations of SQL Module Language, but do not have
direct experience with SAMeDL and other approaches used to interface
Ada programs to a relational database, based on SQL.

What is the experience of others on the net, regarding actual use
of SAMeDL, Ada/SAME, ESQL/Ada and other related products?  What were
the limitations and strong points? 

    - Gary
-- 
| Gary Funck  		    gary@intrepid.com  [uunet!uupsi!intrepid!gary]
| Intrepid Technology Inc., Mountain View CA (415) 964-8135
--

Re: What is SAMeDL?

[Gary Tominovich]

SAMeDL is a database programming language, currently undergoing ISO
standardization, that supports the development of Ada application interfaces
to relational Database Management Systems (DBMSs) that use SQL.
It differs from other Ada/SQL binding techniques such as ANSI Ada/SQL
Module Language or Ada/ESQL by providing features that better fit the
software engineering principles of Ada.

It supports:
    o A standard modular interface

    o isolation of DBMS differences and COTS DBMS dependencies (handled
      by the SAMeDL compiler and is thus transparent to the user), and
      therefore is very portable.

    o tighter integration with Ada applications by promoting facilities for
      the use of strong and abstract typing, record oriented interfaces, and
      exception handling.

SAMeDL is becoming a common requirement of DoD contracts such as LCU,
I-CASE, and CHS-2, and has been listed in the CIM Technical Reference
Model as a preferred Ada/SQL binding.

At a logical level, the interface generated by a SAMeDL compiler is a
layered approach comprised (from top to bottom) of an abstract interface,
an abstract module, a concrete interface, and a concrete module. The abstract
interface is a set of Ada package specifications containing the type and
procedure declarations to be used by the Ada application program.  The
abstract module is the set of corresponding Ada package bodies for the
abstract interface.  These bodies are reponsible for invoking the routines of
the concrete interface, and converting between the Ada and the SQL data and
error representations.  The concrete interface is a set of specifications
that define the SQL procedures needed by the abstract module.  The concrete
module is a set of SQL procedures that implement the concrete interface.

Intermetrics has implemented SAMeDL compilers that support a variety of
databases from vendors such as Informix, Oracle, Progress, Sybase, and CA/XDB.

If you would like further information, please contact Bill Zimmerman at
617-661-1840, or feel free to contact myself via e-mail or phone.

-- Gary Tominovich
   Intermetrics, Inc.
   (703)-827-2606
   gdt@fanny.wash.inmet.com