From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.9 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00,SYSADMIN autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 22 May 93 16:55:26 GMT From: cis.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!howland. reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!ajpo.sei. cmu.edu!connr@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Richard Conn) Subject: ASR FAQ Message-ID: <1993May22.125526.10752@sei.cmu.edu> List-Id: Ada Software Repository - Frequently Asked Questions Date: 22 May 1993 Questions/Comments/Suggestions for Improvement? Contact connr@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu 1. What is the ASR? 2. Disclaimer 3. Who is paying for the ASR and its sites? 4. How do I get a copy of the resources it offers? 5. How do I find out what the ASR has to offer? ============================================================================ 1. What is the ASR? The Ada Software Repository (ASR) is a repository of Ada programs, software components, and educational material that has been established on the SIMTEL20 host computer on the Defense Data Network (DDN). This repository has been accessible to any host computer on the network since November 26, 1984. The ASR is currently a voluntary activity without funding. Disk space is provided on SIMTEL20 on a space-available basis and is subject to going away without warning if the need arises. The ASR serves two basic roles: to promote the exchange and use (reusability) of Ada programs and tools (including components) and to promote Ada education (specifically by providing several working examples of programs in source form for people to study and modify and by providing courseware on Software Engineering with Ada, Object-Oriented Design, and Object-Oriented Programming). The ASR is one of several repositories located on the SIMTEL20 DDN host computer at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. SIMTEL20 is owned and operated by the Computer Operations Division of the Information Systems Command of the U.S. Army (USAISC). ============================================================================ 2. Disclaimer All software, documentation, and other items of information in the ASR are in the public domain, covered by ACM-style or GNU-style copyrights, or are shareware. These software, documentation, and information files are provided "AS IS" and without any expressed or implied warranties whatsoever. No warranties of performance, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose exist. Because of the diversity of conditions and hardware under which this software may be used, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The user is advised to test the software thoroughly before relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk and liability of using this software. In no event shall any person or organization of people be held responsible for any direct, indirect, consequential or inconsequential damages or lost profits. Documentation on or mention of any company or its products in any of the files in the ASR is provided for the information of the ASR user community only and does not in any way constitute an endorsement. ============================================================================ 3. Who is paying for the ASR and its sites? The ASR is currently a voluntary activity without funding. Disk space is provided on SIMTEL20 on a space-available basis and is subject to going away without warning if the need arises. The mirror sites and servers are funded by the local institutions out of a feeling of shared interest and mutual benefit. We constitute a community of users who is interested in serving our own user communities and are providing a public service in the interest of serving our own users better. All services are voluntary, and any service is subject to change at any time without notice. Each service is self-supporting and is occasionally blessed with grants from industry and government sectors to help it continue providing its service. If you wish to use a service, please pay attention to the directions given by that service and adhere to their wishes. Their directions are usually not restrictive and are in place for good reason. ============================================================================ 4. How do I get a copy of the resources it offers? The ASR is split between the PD: and PD: directories on SIMTEL20. SIMTEL20 allows only nine ANONYMOUS FTP logins during weekday prime time, 5am to 3pm Mountain Time (GMT-7), but 27 otherwise. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to not use SIMTEL20 directly; use the mirror sites instead. All of the ASR is available on AdaNET, funded by NASA. Subscriptions to AdaNET are free of charge. Contact AdaNET directly via email to lacey@adanet.wvnet.edu (this is the AdaNET Client Service) or via phone at 800/444-1458. Parts of the ASR are available on ASSET, funded by STARS. Subscriptions to ASSET are free of charge. Contact librarian@source.asset.com. A copy of the entire ASR and other useful Ada code and information (aflex/ayacc, Numerics Working Group papers, Paradise, GNAT info, and a copy of the material on ajpo.sei.cmu.edu) is on the French host cnam.cnam.fr starting in the directory /pub/Ada. Access can be made by anonymous FTP. If you are a user of CompuServe or GENIE, the MSDOS archives on SIMTEL20 are frequently copied into these services. All of the ASR is available on the following SIMTEL20 mirror sites in the indicated directories: oak.oakland.edu (USA, 141.210.10.117) pub/ada wuarchive.wustl.edu (USA, 128.252.135.4) mirrors/ada ftp.uu.net (USA, 137.39.1.9) languages/ada nctuccca.edu.tw (Taiwan, 140.111.3.21) Computing-Languages/ada/SIMTEL-ada All of the MSDOS archive is available on the following SIMTEL20 mirror sites: oak.oakland.edu (USA, 141.210.10.117) pub/msdos wuarchive.wustl.edu (USA, 128.252.135.4) mirrors/msdos archive.orst.edu (USA, 128.193.2.13) ftp.uu.net (USA, 137.39.1.9) nic.funet.fi (Finland, 128.214.6.100) src.doc.ic.ac.uk (United Kingdom, 146.169.3.7) nic.switch.ch (USA, 130.59.1.40) archie.au (Australia, 139.130.4.6) nctuccca.edu.tw (Taiwan, 140.111.3.21) As a general rule, and ASR and MSDOS archives are at various locations on these mirror sites. You have to go looking for them. It usually does not take long to find them after a few quick guesses. SIMTEL20 files are available by e-mail through the BITNET/EARN file servers, which include: Location EARN/BITNET Internet -------------- ---------------- ---------------------------------- In USA: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU In USA: LISTSERV@RPITSVM LISTSERV@VM.ITS.RPI.EDU In Turkey: TRICKLE@TREARN TRICKLE@EGE.EDU.TR In Italy: TRICKLE@IMIPOLI In Belgium: TRICKLE@BANUFS11 TRICKLE@CCS.UFSIA.AC.BE In Austria: TRICKLE@AWIWUW11 In Germany: TRICKLE@DEARN TRICKLE@VM.GMD.DE In Israel: TRICKLE@TAUNIVM TRICKLE@VM.TAU.AC.IL In Netherlands: TRICKLE@HEARN TRICKLE@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL In France: TRICKLE@FRMOP11 TRICKLE@FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR In Colombia: TRICKLE@UNALCOL TRICKLE@UNALCOL.UNAL.EDU.CO In Sweden: TRICKLE@SEARN TRICKLE@SEARN.SUNET.SE Lengthy details on use of these servers is presented below. SIMTEL20 files are available by uucp from UUNET's 1-900-GOT-SRCS. See UUNET file uunet!~/info/archive-help for details. If you cannot access them via FTP or e-mail, most SIMTEL20 MSDOS files, including the PC-Blue collection, are also available for downloading from Detroit Download Central (313) 885-3956. DDC has multiple lines which support 300/1200/2400/9600/14400 bps (103/212/V22bis/HST/V32bis/V42bis/MNP). This is a subscription system with an average hourly cost of 17 cents. It is also accessable on Telenet via PC Pursuit and on Tymnet via StarLink outdial. New files uploaded to SIMTEL20 are usually available on DDC within 24 hours. CD-ROM copies of the SIMTEL20 MS-DOS collection are available from Coyote Data, Ltd., 1142 N. Main, Rochester, MI 48307, USA, telephone (800) 451-7093 or (313) 656-8265, or FAX (313) 651-4071. E-mail: 71756.444@CompuServe.COM or CIS 71756,444. The consumer version of their Oasis Library CD-ROM re-catalogs the MS-DOS files of SIMTEL20, adds category and key-word search and retrieval utilities, and provides on-line file descriptions. Quarterly update subscriptions are available. CD-ROM copies of the SIMTEL20 MS-DOS, Macintosh and Unix-C collections are available from Walnut Creek CDROM, 1547 Palos Verdes, Suite 260, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-2228, USA, telephone (800) 786-9907 or (510) 947-5996, or FAX (510) 947-1644. E-mail: rab@cdrom.com. Quarterly update subscriptions are available. If you do not have FTP access to SIMTEL20 or its mirrors, files may be ordered by e-mail from the servers listed above. If your mailer wants bang paths: uunet!vm1.nodak.edu!listserv uunet!vm.its.rpi.edu!listserv If you use bang paths, substitute your nearest neighbor which is also on the Internet for uunet in the examples above. Some examples are: ames, decvax, decwrl, harvard, hplabs, nosc, rutgers, sharkey, sun, ucbvax, ucsd, udel, uw-beaver, wuarchive. Send these commands to the server to get its help files: Use this command for LISTSERV: GET PDGET HELP Use this command for TRICKLE: /HELP Sample command (which gets our catalog of MS-DOS files): /PDGET MAIL PD:SIMLIST.ZIP UUENCODE These commands should be sent as the body of a regular email message. Do not include a signature because it confuses the server. If you have xxdecode, you may wish to specify XXENCODE instead of UUENCODE to avoid character translation problems. SIMTEL20 does *not* run these servers. Comments, questions, and suggestions should be directed to the LISTSERV or TRICKLE manager at one of these addresses, depending on which server you normally use: Internet BITNET "John Fisher" "Marty Hoag" "TRICKLE Maintainers" Please do NOT send your comment or question about the servers to SIMTEL20. However, if you wish to report a program bug or to request information on how to upload files to SIMTEL20, you may send e-mail to me at one of the addresses below. [Note: Do not use ftp-by-mail servers without the permission of your system administrator and (if fed via uucp) your uucp feed. Thank you. Justification: many sites simply don't have the disk space set up to do this without warning, and mail disruption may result.] Keith Petersen Maintainer of the MS-DOS archive at WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil [192.88.110.20] Internet: w8sdz@TACOM-EMH1.Army.Mil or w8sdz@Vela.ACS.Oakland.Edu Uucp: uunet!umich!vela!w8sdz BITNET: w8sdz@OAKLAND ============================================================================ 5. How do I find out what the ASR has to offer? The contents of the ASR are organized in several different ways to make finding software and documentation easier for the ASR user. The following summarizes the information sources. 5.1. ASR Master Index The Master Index of the Ada Software Repository (ASR) is a loose-leaf book that contains details on the software and information in the ASR. Each item of software is described by an abstract, information on the host compiler/operating system and target environment, and a listing of all associated files and their locations in the ASR. Each item of information is described by an abstract and a listing of all associated files. The ASR Master Index can be quickly searched by using its table of contents, taxonomy, and index. 5.2. Online Documentation System The directory contains the files ADA.DB and ADA.HDR. ADA.DB contains a machine-readable, comma-delimited ASCII text database that can be read by several database and spreadsheet programs (such as dBASE II, SuperCalc, etc.). This database contains a taxonomy of the ASR, file specifications, and brief descriptions of each item in the ASR. The file ADA.HDR names the database record fields and gives their size, starting row (on a spreadsheet), and starting column (on a spreadsheet) in a format read by several popular spreadsheet programs. These files are updated often. 5.3. Top-Level File Listings In are several ADA.* files that contain listings of the files in the ASR in various formats. These files are updated often. Some of them are: ADA.CRC - listing of files by directory with byte counts and CRCs ADA.UUE - UUENCODED form of ADA.CRC ADA.DB - machine-readable database of the ASR (see elsewhere in this document for details) ADA.HDR - companion file to ADA.DB ADA.RPT - listing of files by directory with line and byte counts ADA.SNP - listing of directories (no files) with overall sizes in lines and bytes ADA.TAX - taxonomy of the ASR ADAF.TAX - taxonomy of the ASR with associated ID files referenced ADA.TIM - listing of the files in reverse chronological order (useful if you get tape updates of the ASR and want to see what has changed since your last update) ADAID.TIM - listing of the ID files in reverse chronological order (useful if you want to see what items have been added or changed recently) ADA.USE - listing of files by number of accesses 5.4. Old User's Handbook and Other Information The directory contains an out-of-date user's handbook (ASRUH.DOC and ASRUH.IDX). It also contains an out-of-date welcome message (OVWELCOME.DOC). A lot of information on SIMTEL20 file names and other topics may still be valid. -- ======================================== Richard Conn Disclaimer: I do not represent the AJPO or any other organization in my statements made on the Internet.