Re: Ada Coding Rules

Re: Ada Coding Rules

[Alex Blakemore]

In article <1993Feb18.114045.11990@hsacsd.signaal.nl> jacobs@hsacsd.signaal.nl 
writes:
> We are looking to literature and/or tools for Ada Coding Rules.

One source is the book "Ada Quality and Style"
developed by the Software Productivity Consortium and
available from AdaIC.  I think the ascii text of the current version
is on ajpo.sei.cmu.edu.
Disclaimer: I was involved with its creation so I am biased towards it 
(mostly, nothing is perfect).

There are other good ones as well from NASA, Boeing, Rational and others.
If you get the SPC guide, it has references to others.

Whatever you choose, you should probably need some project specific tailoring, 
but the best of these books get you thinking about quality and point out places
where you ought to think twice about what you're doing.

The lexical issues are the least important, but dont feel obliged
to follow the LRM style that is so heavy with using UPPER CASE.
-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu   NeXT mail accepted

Re: Ada Coding Rules

[Mich ael Feldman]

In article <1993Feb18.114045.11990@hsacsd.signaal.nl> jacobs@hsacsd.signaal.nl 
writes:
>
>We are looking to literature and/or tools for Ada Coding Rules.
>
>These rules should cover (at least) the following topics like:
>  - the layout of the source code files (headers, indentation, etc.)
>  - naming conventions (for all kind of identifiers)
>  - the use of Ada (avoidance of complex constructions, side-effects).
>
You can ftp the Ada Quality and Style Guide from ajpo.sei.cmu.edu.
This useful set of recommendations was developed by the Software
Productivity Consortium and endorsed as a set of _recommendations_
by AJPO. It's no panacea (what is?), but it's a useful document.
I was a reviewer of the document, so I know it reasonably well.

Mike Feldman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael B. Feldman
co-chair, SIGAda Education Committee

Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
School of Engineering and Applied Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
(202) 994-5253 (voice)
(202) 994-5296 (fax)
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)

"The most important thing is to be sincere, 
and once you've learned how to fake that, you've got it made." 
-- old show-business adage
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Ada Coding Rules

[Jon Spear]

In article <1993Feb18.114045.11990@hsacsd.signaal.nl> jacobs@hsacsd.signaal.nl 
writes:
>
>We are looking to literature and/or tools for Ada Coding Rules.
>
>These rules should cover (at least) the following topics like:
>  - the layout of the source code files (headers, indentation, etc.)
>  - naming conventions (for all kind of identifiers)
>  - the use of Ada (avoidance of complex constructions, side-effects).
>
>Also experiences of other people using this kind of coding rules is welcome.
>
>For information: we develop large real-time Air Traffic Control systems, mainl
y
>coded in Ada.

This has been mentioned before in this newsgroup, but if you haven't
already gotten it, you should take a look at: _Ada_Quality_and_Style:_
Guidelines_for_Professional_Programmers_, SPC-91061-CMC, Version 02.01.01,
dated December 1992.
   This is about 200 pages of Ada guidelines with rationale,
references and examples.  Most of them are pretty good ideas (IMHO).
There are many comments on how conformance with the guidelines could
(or couldn't) be automatically checked, but they don't point to any
style auditing programs [are there any out there?].  It doesn't
address all your topics, but is a good start. 
   You can FTP it as compressed postscript files from
ajpo.sei.cmu.edu:/public/adastyle/, or can order paper copies (cost
unknown) from:

	National Technical Information Service: Commerce Dept.
	5285 Port Royal Rd.
	Springfield, VA  22161
	(703)487-4650

   Please let us know of other coding guides or auditors that might
be available.

-Jon
-- 
| Jon L. Spear (spear@cs.nps.navy.mil) : With computers we can make        |
| Dept of Comp Sci, Code CS/Sj, x2830  : billions of misteaks each second. |

Re: ADA CODING RULES

[cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu]

In article <1030.237.uupcb@nitelog.com>, michael.hagerty@nitelog.com
(Michael Hagerty) wrote:
> If you do find a tool which enforces the rules and, optionally, the added
> recommendations, let me know where I can get it.
  
Contact Grammatech, specifically Wilson V. Kone (wvk@grammatech.com) for
info on Ada-Assured. They released it at Tri-Ada last fall. It seems to be
a language sensitive editor and pretty-printer with rule enforcement
options. 

I haven't tried it, but it sounds interesting in their ads and they are
offering a 30 day free trial. Hard to go wrong with that. 

The main catch is the price of about $1500 per workstation. I could see
people paying $150 per seat for this functionality, but not a lot more. To
get up into the over-$1000 price range the tool should be a powerful
control centre for the whole environment (like the Rational editor) able to
browse source using the structural information in the Ada library. If ASIS
catches on, that should be feasible for third party tool vendors to
support. (By the way, Meridian's SMART option for their PC compilers costs
only about $100 extra and gives you that structured browsing and a
hypertext version of the Reference Manual, among other things. Too bad it
is not a very powerful editor, and sometimes crashes the PC.)     

... Al Quirt   (aquirt@bnr.ca)  ...
... just my opinions, of course ...

Re: ADA CODING RULES

[Scott McCoy]

Michael Hagerty wrote:
|> If you do find a tool which enforces the rules and, optionally, the
|> added
|> recommendations, let me know where I can get it.
|>   

I just remembered another tool.  

Try Xinotech Research, Inc. at (612) 379-3844.  
My POC is Michael O'Connor, the director of marketing.  

The tool is called the Xinotech Program Composer.  From the
glossy propoganda:

	Xinotech presently supports the following languages:
	Ada, CMS-2, CMS-2M, Pascal, Modula-2, Plus, COBOL85,
	Ryan-MacFarland COBOL, and SQL.  Xinotech also
	supports the following PDL's:  ADADL, Byron, HOOD ODS,
	and the VLSI/VHSIC hardware design language VHDL.

	The Composer runs on a variety of platforms.  This
	include Sun (Sun/3, Sun/4, and SPARC), HP and Apollo
	workstations, DEC VAX/VMS machines, Mac A/UX, and the
	IBM PS/2, AT, XT and compatibles running MS-Windows 3.0.
	The Composer supports X-Windows, Motif, and Open Look.
	Furture versions are planned for OS/2, DEC ULTRIX, and
	others.

My literature is a bit old, so there may be more.
-- 
Scott McCoy	Harris ISD	Opinions expressed are my own.
Staff Eng - SW	Internet: 	smccoy@dw3g.ess.harris.com

Re: Ada Coding Rules

[Phillip Gardner]

This article is being posted by someone other than the author.  Please direct
followup email to jak@pseserv2.magec.com (or uunet!netwrk!pseserv2!jak).


In article <1993Feb19.024311.210@leeweyr.sccsi.com>, bill@leeweyr.sccsi.com (Bi
ll Lee) writes:
> I suggest you get a copy of the latest "Ada Quality and Style: Guidelines 
> for ProfessionalProgrammers"  SPC-91061-CMC VERSION 02.01.01

I read your request for information about Ada Coding Standards documentation an
d
tools posted to comp.lang.ada.

I absolutely agree (with Bill from Lee Aerie) that the "Ada Quality and Style:
Guideline for Professional Programmers" from the Software Productivity
Consortium is a good start.

At Magnavox, we use AdaMAT from:

        Dynamics Research Corporation (DRC)
        60 Frontage Road
        Andover, MA 01810
        (800) 522-7321, (508) 475-9090

AdaMAT is an automated, Ada-specific static source code analyzer which
automatically checks for various coding standards and guidelines.  It follows
almost all of the suggestions in the Ada Quality and Style Guideline.

We use AdaMAT on the RATIONAL system.  The RATIONAL system is a well known Ada
development system.  One of its features is that the Editor automatically
controls the format of the Ada code (indentation, upper case/lower case, etc.)
and some language features (eg. prevents using "use" and "anonymous array
types").

I'm sure AdaMAT runs on other platforms such as VAX/VMS, Sun/UNIX, HP/UNIX, etc
.

I've used VAX/VMS before, and it has VAXset (or DECset) with a Language
Sensitive Editor (LSE) which will also aid in controlling the format of the Ada
code.

Some of the things that we have learned about Ada at Magnavox:

For DOD-STD-2167 or 2167A, CSUs = Ada Packages.
Never use "use".
Avoid global variables (variables declared in package specifications).
Use "named loops, exits, and declare blocks".
Use "named parameters" when calling subprograms.
Avoid "anonymous array types".
Add comments to "begin", "else", "end if", "end case", etc.
Many others that you'll learn with additional Ada experience...
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
James A. Krzyzanowski - Software Engineer
Magnavox Electronic Systems Company * Fort Wayne, IN 46808 * (219) 429-6446
E-Mail : uunet!netwrk!pseserv2!jak (UUCP) * jak@pseserv2.magec.com (Internet)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-

Re: Ada Coding Rules

[cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!caen!uvaarpa!soft]

In article <1993Feb18.114045.11990@hsacsd.signaal.nl> jacobs@hsacsd.signaal.nl 
writes:
> 
> We are looking to literature and/or tools for Ada Coding Rules.
> 
> These rules should cover (at least) the following topics like:
>   - the layout of the source code files (headers, indentation, etc.)
>   - naming conventions (for all kind of identifiers)
>   - the use of Ada (avoidance of complex constructions, side-effects).
> [text deleted]

The trailing text is extracted from a post by the Ada Information Clearinghouse
.
The postscript files are available.  The guidelines do cover the topics
mentioned above.  However, some of the guidelines leave choices to the
project or organization, such as how many spaces to use per indentation
level.  The guideline says to use a consistant indentation scheme and
goes further to make recommendations, providing the example indentation
scheme used in the document.

Several style guides we were aware of were checked to extract any `gems'
of wisdom, and the guidelines went through a public review, then a
`distinguished reviewers' review cycle.

> The document, "Ada Quality and Style: Guidelines for Professional
> Programmers, Version 2.01.01, December 1992", developed by Software
> Productivity Consortium, is available in ASCII format on the AJPO
> host.  This is the Ada Joint Program Office's "suggested Ada Style
> Guide for use in DoD programs".  You are encouraged to submit comments
> to adastyle@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu.
> 
> Ada Quality and Style is available through anonymous FTP.
> 	     host: ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
> 	directory: ftp/public/adastyle
> 
> The ASCII version is available as style-t.hlp.
> 
> The postscript files will be uploaded to the AJPO host as soon as they are
> available.
> 
> The previous version of Ada Quality and Style, V2.00.02, 1991, has been
> moved to /public/adastyle/V2.00.  This version will be removed when both
> ASCII and postscript files are available for V2.01.01, 1992.
> -- 
> Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)		|  IIT Research Institute
> 703/685-1477, 800/AdaIC-11, FAX 703/685-7019	|  operates the AdaIC for
> Internet:  adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu		|  the Ada Joint Program
> CompuServe:  70312,3303				|  Office (AJPO).