From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,74fbf0c5ce05c298 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-03-22 04:09:47 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: sparky!uunet!seas.gwu.edu!mfeldman From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) Subject: Re: Ada Decimal Arithmetic & Representations (ADAR) V1.0 available Message-ID: <1993Mar21.231233.2934@seas.gwu.edu> Keywords: AJPO, ATIP, ADAR, Decimal Arithmetic Sender: news@seas.gwu.edu Organization: George Washington University References: <1993Mar19.161646.26563@sei.cmu.edu> Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 23:12:33 GMT Date: 1993-03-21T23:12:33+00:00 List-Id: In article <1993Mar19.161646.26563@sei.cmu.edu> adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (Michele L. Kee (AdaIC)) writes: > >The ADAR packages were developed to provide a common approach for >decimal arithmetic and Ada 83. The ADAR package set consists of two >related facilities for decimal arithmetic, one based on discriminant >records, and the other on generics, to provide decimal computation and >interoperable representations of decimal quantities. > >The ADAR packages include support for decimal data with up to 18 >digits of precision, arithmetic operations with programmer control >over rounding versus truncation, conversions to and from common >external representations, and formatted output of decimal values based >on COBOL's "picture" clauses. > I have been working with ADAR off and on for a month or so, and find it an extraordinarily interesting artifact for educational purposes because there is some very good Ada in it. I believe that it is also useful in its own right as a facility for adding IS features to Ada83. You can view it as a preview of some of the IS facilities in Ada9X. Ben Brosgol, Dave Emery, and Bob Eachus have done a great job of producing this software and deserve our commendation. That said, I wish to express some disappointment at the limited number of compilers for which ADAR has been tested. The Meridian family is the most common family of compilers in education, and ADAR dos not (yet) work under Meridian; preliminary tests indicate that at least some compilation-order problems will need to be resolved. To operate under Ada/Ed, ADAR will need a good bit more work; there are (I think) some capacity problems as well as the Ada/Ed requirement (which used to be common in Ada compilers) that a generic body appear in the same file as the associated generic spec. Perhaps we at GW will find the time to re-work ADAR for these two important education-oriented Ada systems; perhaps someone in net-land will. Whatever, I commend ADAR to you as a neat bunch of stuff. 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------