Ada 9X Doc v5.99

Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Garlington KE]

ajpo.sei.cmu.edu has a new directory:

   /public/ada9x/mrtcomments/rm9x/v5.99

that appear to have updates of the Ada95 ARM and AARM. Does anyone know
if the Rationale is also expected to be added to this directory, or if
another version (6.0?) of the ARM/AARM is expected soon? I thought a new
Rationale was going to be produced,but I haven't seen it...


--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Garlington                  GarlingtonKE@lfwc.lockheed.com
F-22 Computer Resources         Lockheed Fort Worth Co.

If LFWC or the F-22 program has any opinions, they aren't telling me.

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Keith Thompson]

In <3fmvuk$5mb@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com> l107353@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com (Garlington KE) writes:
> ajpo.sei.cmu.edu has a new directory:
> 
>    /public/ada9x/mrtcomments/rm9x/v5.99
> 
> that appear to have updates of the Ada95 ARM and AARM.

See /public/ada9x/mrtcomments/rm9x/v6.0 and v6.0.compressed.  It includes
ASCII and PostScript versions of the RM, AARM, Rationale, and chg83
(the latter documents the changes from Ada83 to Ada95).

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Tucker Taft]

In article <3fmvuk$5mb@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com>,
Garlington KE <l107353@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com> wrote:

>ajpo.sei.cmu.edu has a new directory:
>
>   /public/ada9x/mrtcomments/rm9x/v5.99
>
>that appear to have updates of the Ada95 ARM and AARM. Does anyone know
>if the Rationale is also expected to be added to this directory, or if
>another version (6.0?) of the ARM/AARM is expected soon? I thought a new
>Rationale was going to be produced,but I haven't seen it...

The "final" reference manual and rationale are in:
   /public/ada9x/rm9x/v6.0

>Ken Garlington                  GarlingtonKE@lfwc.lockheed.com

-Tucker Taft stt@inmet.com
Intermetrics, Inc.

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Garlington KE]

ISO.PS on AJPO.SEI.CMU.EDU appears to have a distribution statement that only
gives ANSI permission to make copies. Should I use RM.PS instead of ISO.PS
if I want to distribute the manuals around my organization?

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Garlington                  GarlingtonKE@lfwc.lockheed.com
F-22 Computer Resources         Lockheed Fort Worth Co.

If LFWC or the F-22 program has any opinions, they aren't telling me.

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Robert A Duff]

In article <3g0iep$6hj@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com>,
Garlington KE <l107353@cliffy.lfwc.lockheed.com> wrote:
>ISO.PS on AJPO.SEI.CMU.EDU appears to have a distribution statement that only
>gives ANSI permission to make copies. Should I use RM.PS instead of ISO.PS
>if I want to distribute the manuals around my organization?

I have no idea what the legal issues are, but you definitely want to use
RM.PS, because it has paragraph numbers, which the ISO version does not.
The index refers to paragraph numbers, and everybody is in the habit of
referring to paragraph numbers when referencing a rule, so the ISO
version of the document is nearly useless.

Also, the ISO version is formatted for A4 paper, whereas RM.PS is
formatted for 8.5 x 11 paper.

Other than these kinds of formatting things, the two documents are
identical.

- Bob

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Michel Gauthier]

In article <D2xBI2.BKy@world.std.com>, bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A
Duff) wrote:

> [...] Also, the ISO version is formatted for A4 paper, whereas RM.PS is
> formatted for 8.5 x 11 paper.

When will the USA change to the Metric System,
the only one which should be used for the definition of an
international standard ?

-- 
Michel Gauthier - Laboratoire d'informatique - 123 avenue Albert Thomas
F-87060 Limoges - fax +33()55457315

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Matt Kennel]

Michel Gauthier (gauthier@unilim.fr) wrote:
: In article <D2xBI2.BKy@world.std.com>, bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A
: Duff) wrote:

: > [...] Also, the ISO version is formatted for A4 paper, whereas RM.PS is
: > formatted for 8.5 x 11 paper.

: When will the USA change to the Metric System,
: the only one which should be used for the definition of an
: international standard ?

How silly. 

An inch is now a derived metric quantity, exactly 2.54000000 cm.

: -- 
: Michel Gauthier - Laboratoire d'informatique - 123 avenue Albert Thomas
: F-87060 Limoges - fax +33()55457315

--
-Matt Kennel  		mbk@inls1.ucsd.edu
-Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California, San Diego
-*** AD: Archive for nonlinear dynamics papers & programs: FTP to
-***     lyapunov.ucsd.edu, username "anonymous".

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Olaf Weber]

In article <D2xBI2.BKy@world.std.com>, bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff) writes:

> Also, the ISO version is formatted for A4 paper, whereas RM.PS is
> formatted for 8.5 x 11 paper.

Would it not be a good idea to provide versions of `rm.ps' and
`aarm.ps' that have been formatted for A4 paper?

-- Olaf Weber

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[David Moore]

mbk@inls1.ucsd.edu (Matt Kennel) writes:

>Michel Gauthier (gauthier@unilim.fr) wrote:
>: In article <D2xBI2.BKy@world.std.com>, bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A
>: Duff) wrote:

>: > [...] Also, the ISO version is formatted for A4 paper, whereas RM.PS is
>: > formatted for 8.5 x 11 paper.

>: When will the USA change to the Metric System,
>: the only one which should be used for the definition of an
>: international standard ?

>How silly. 

>An inch is now a derived metric quantity, exactly 2.54000000 cm.

Does this mean it can only be used for clothing?

(Explanation for US readers.  The centimetre is not an SI unit. It is
only used for industries where an SI unit would prove inconvenient,
such as the clothing industry. Perhaps the inch was defined in terms
of centimetres to emphasise its bogosity!)

[Anyway, I have never understood why the founding fathers did not throw off
the Imperial system of measure when they threw off the Imperial yoke. The
French found the need to replace their system of measure along with their
system of government]

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Robb Nebbe]

In article <3g8v5r$467@rational.rational.com>, davidm@rational.com (David Moore) writes:

|> 
|> [Anyway, I have never understood why the founding fathers did not throw off
|> the Imperial system of measure when they threw off the Imperial yoke. The
|> French found the need to replace their system of measure along with their
|> system of government]

The US adopted the French system of naming large numbers (million = 10^6,
billion = 10^9, trillion = 10^12 ...) only to have the French abandon
it later to adopt the system used by Germany and England (million = 10^6,
billion = 10^12, trillion = 10^18 ...).

This leads one to ask the question: if the US had adopted the metric
system would the French latter have changed to the English system? :-)

Robb Nebbe

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Michel Gauthier]

In article <1995Jan27.145656@lglsun.epfl.ch>, nebbe@lglsun.epfl.ch (Robb
Nebbe) wrote:

> [...]
> 
> The US adopted the French system of naming large numbers (million = 10^6,
> billion = 10^9, trillion = 10^12 ...) only to have the French abandon
> it later to adopt the system used by Germany and England (million = 10^6,
> billion = 10^12, trillion = 10^18 ...).

In fact, we (the French) no longer use any such words, but often Mega and Giga
with their official meaning, and greater similar multipliers whenever
applicable,
which is not very frequent. And 10^9 is generally 'milliard', not
'billion', which 
I have never encountered.
 
> This leads one to ask the question: if the US had adopted the metric
> system would the French latter have changed to the English system? :-)

No idea, but we have yet to abandon the comma we use instead of
the decimal point. Almost as impossible to justify as the US position
about the Metric System.

-- 
Michel Gauthier - Laboratoire d'informatique - 123 avenue Albert Thomas
F-87060 Limoges - fax +33()55457315
----- Are the messages that objects exchange also objects ? -----

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Michael Feldman]

In article <gauthier-2501951603300001@164.81.60.62>,
Michel Gauthier <gauthier@unilim.fr> wrote:

>When will the USA change to the Metric System,
>the only one which should be used for the definition of an
>international standard ?

When pigs fly. :-)

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Robert Dewar]

"I have never understood why the founding fathers did not throw off the
imperial system of measures"

Oh but they did, at least in part, no US motorist can buy an imperial
gallon of petrol, only a puny gallon of gas, some 4/5's of the true
imperial measure.

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Michael Feldman]

In article <3g94oi$sro@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM>,
David Weller <dweller@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> wrote:

>A popular rumor was a US congressman in the 70's said, "We'll start
>using the metric system the same time we all start speaking French!"

>Alas, there is a nontrivial amount of resistance to the metric
>system, primarily founded on fear, but there are some genuine
>economic reasons.  In any case, the problem should correct itseelf
>in, say, 20 years. :-)

Well, maybe. There was a big push in the 70s. The Commerce Department
tried to "metricate". Congress sorta got on the bandwagon, and we saw
some really hilarious implementations. I can remember seeing a sign on
the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (which is owned by the National Park
Service) saying 

Baltimore 
40 miles 
64.374 km

Naturally this sort of stupidity (sabotage?) drove people up the wall.
Three decimal places? Gimmea break!

Much of US industry is metric now in any case, especially the auto
industry. What is not yet metric is mostly stuff that doesn't matter
all that much, like those highway road signs. It also doesn;t ruin
international trade if Americans prefer to buy their fresh vegetables 
by the pound.

Speedometers in the US are marked both ways, miles in big numerals,
km in smaller ones. Canadian cars have it the other way. And cars with
digital instruments let you hit a button to switch.

IMHO, A4 paper is in a gray area. The US gobbles up so much paper
that we can probably get away with having our own size. Docs formatted
for 8.5 x 11 paper, printed on A4, just have slightly skinnier side 
margins and a fat bottom margin. If I am not mistaken, even though Canada
is generally metric, they use the US paper sizes. Am I right?

Paper is another funny story. Who's old enough to remember when DoD
used 8 x 10.5 paper? Talk about MIL SPECS! The story I heard at the time
they switched to "commercial standards" was that they discovered that
paper suppliers were manufacturing truckloads of 8.5 x 11 paper, then
_cutting it down_ to meet DoD contract terms (and charging DoD for the
extra work, of course)! This must have been less than 20 years ago, 
because I moved to GW in 1975 and I think I was here when it happened.

Is this a great world, or what? :-)

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Michael Feldman]

In article <gauthier-2701951857340001@164.81.60.62>,
Michel Gauthier <gauthier@unilim.fr> wrote:

>No idea, but we have yet to abandon the comma we use instead of
>the decimal point. Almost as impossible to justify as the US position
>about the Metric System.

But the comma/period convention is at least standard in Europe.
One can argue endlessly about the virtues of comma vs. period,
but somehow the Europeans have managed to get agreement on _that_,
which is quite rare for Europe.:-)

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Michael Feldman]

In article <EACHUS.95Jan27144621@spectre.mitre.org>,
Robert I. Eachus <eachus@spectre.mitre.org> wrote:
>
>     The United States has (officially) been on the metric system for
>centuries.  However the government has little or no ability to force
>people to change the way they think.  Shell tried to switch to pumps
>that sold gas in liters many years ago.  They survived the experiment.

But soft drinks are typically sold in liter bottles now, even in the
backward U.S. Liquid refreshment may in fact be sold formally by the
metric system in Europe, but the actual bottle sizes certainly are
not in round numbers. Soft drinks In Europe tend to come in strange
(though metric) sizes, like 33 cl. Beer too, I think. And one definitely
runs into 750 ml wine bottles. Marketing, no doubt, just like here.

Mike Feldman

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Michael Feldman]

In article <3gcmu2$rb@gnat.cs.nyu.edu>, Robert Dewar <dewar@cs.nyu.edu> wrote:

>Oh but they did, at least in part, no US motorist can buy an imperial
>gallon of petrol, only a puny gallon of gas, some 4/5's of the true
>imperial measure.

Not even in Canada, where until recently gas (petrol?) was still sold
by the "big" gallon. They do liters now. :-)

Mike Feldman

NOthing to do with Ada anymore (Re: Metrics)

[David Weller]

In article <3ggh6q$bpd@felix.seas.gwu.edu>,
Michael Feldman <mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu> wrote:
>Soft drinks In Europe tend to come in strange
>(though metric) sizes, like 33 cl. Beer too, 

That's not strange!  33cl = ~12oz.  No retooling required in
manufacturing plants :-)

-- 
      Frustrated with C, C++, Pascal, Fortran?  Ada95 _might_ be for you!
	  For all sorts of interesting Ada95 tidbits, run the command:
"finger dweller@starbase.neosoft.com | more" (or e-mail with "finger" as subj.)
	

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Tarjei Jensen]

These days soft drinks in Norway tend to be sold in .5, 1.0 and 1.5 liter
bottles (1.0 liter bottles might be dissapearing as well). .33 is still with
us, but is slowly disappearing. Due to environmental concerns cans have been
taxed to death.

Beer in pubs used to be sold in .5 liter glasses, but now they are down to .4
liter (4 deciliters). It is still called halvliter (half liter) though.


Greetings,
 
--
// Tarjei T. Jensen 
//    tarjeij@ulrik.uio.no       || +47 51 563411
//   Support you local rescue centre: GET LOST!
// Working, but not speaking for the Norwegian Hydrographic Service.

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Jules]

In article <3gggqj$b95@felix.seas.gwu.edu>,
	mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
>In article <gauthier-2701951857340001@164.81.60.62>,
>Michel Gauthier <gauthier@unilim.fr> wrote:
>
>>No idea, but we have yet to abandon the comma we use instead of
>>the decimal point. Almost as impossible to justify as the US position
>>about the Metric System.
>
>But the comma/period convention is at least standard in Europe.
>One can argue endlessly about the virtues of comma vs. period,
>but somehow the Europeans have managed to get agreement on _that_,
>which is quite rare for Europe.:-)
>
>Mike Feldman

Yes, but us British have opted out again ;-)

No, seriously, I think we really DO have a problem that depending on where
you are in the world 1,301 could have to completely different meanings...

-- 
/* Julian R Hall				csusb@csv.warwick.ac.uk
   
   Flames should be redirected to /dev/null - I don't know what
   I'm saying myself so don't expect it to make sense all the time!         */

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Jules]

In article <3ggh6q$bpd@felix.seas.gwu.edu>,
	mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:

>But soft drinks are typically sold in liter bottles now, even in the
>backward U.S. Liquid refreshment may in fact be sold formally by the
>metric system in Europe, but the actual bottle sizes certainly are
>not in round numbers. Soft drinks In Europe tend to come in strange
>(though metric) sizes, like 33 cl. Beer too, I think. And one definitely
>runs into 750 ml wine bottles. Marketing, no doubt, just like here.
>
>Mike Feldman

It's to do with standardisation. When we all metricated (?) we decided on
various capacities that were standard. For any particular type of product,
there are only certain sizes that the vendors are allowed to sell them in.

For example, drinks may be (for example), 250ml or 330ml. You could not
sell a can of drink containing 300ml in Europe. I believe 330ml originated
because it was quite close to a common imperial unit (could be half a pint,
but I'm not sure), whilst still being a relatively round number in the decimal
system.

Oh and 750ml is absolutely standard for a 'bottle' of wine. Has been for ages.
I don't know when this tradition started, but something to do with the French,
at a guess.


-- 
/* Julian R Hall				csusb@csv.warwick.ac.uk
   
   Flames should be redirected to /dev/null - I don't know what
   I'm saying myself so don't expect it to make sense all the time!         */

request Ada cource plan (was: Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99)

[Sverre Brubaek]

In article <TARJEIJ.95Jan30145821@ulrik.uio.no>, tarjeij@ulrik.uio.no (Tarjei Jensen) writes:
|> These days soft drinks in Norway tend to be sold in .5, 1.0 and 1.5 liter
|> bottles (1.0 liter bottles might be dissapearing as well). .33 is still with
|> us, but is slowly disappearing. Due to environmental concerns cans have been
|> taxed to death.
|> 
|> Beer in pubs used to be sold in .5 liter glasses, but now they are down to .4
|> liter (4 deciliters). It is still called halvliter (half liter) though.
|> 
|> 
|> Greetings,
|>  
|> --
|> // Tarjei T. Jensen 
|> //    tarjeij@ulrik.uio.no       || +47 51 563411
|> //   Support you local rescue centre: GET LOST!
|> // Working, but not speaking for the Norwegian Hydrographic Service.

Now that is what we call topic drift... ;-)

ob Ada:
I might be able to talk the powers that be here at UiB to adopt Ada95 as a first
language, to do that i need some material though. What i need is recomendations
of good books, a general plan for the cource (1 semester) and any other material
that might be uses for persuasion of the local academia (which currently uses
simula67). If somone could point me in the right direction for (or indeed be so
utterly kind as to supply such) material, would I be very (ok. at least
a little bit ;) grateful.
-- 
+-------------------------------Sverre Brubaek--------------------------------+
| e-mail s424@brems.ii.uib.no         | s-mail Stoeletorget 10, 5003 bergen   |
| v-mail (+47) 55 96 24 81            | www http://brems.ii.uib.no/~s424/     | 
+-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  - --** Team os/2 **-- - - - --** Team Ada **-- - - - --** MNIF-stud **-- -  

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Robert Dewar]

Regarding the idiotic sign on the highway (km to three decimal places):

Clive Cussler in his latest novel (Inca Gold) has DIrk Pitt use metric for
all his measurements ("he looked ahead and about three meters away ...")

Every reference is followed by in parentheses the equivalent US measure
often with excessive decimal places in the same irritating manner
(so for example the above three meters becomes .. three meters (9.7 feet))

The worst case is a reference to square meters which gets translated to
square feet without bothering to notice that the conversion factor needs
to be squared in this case.

I assume it was some idiot copy editor who insisted on this annoying
nonsense.

Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[Christopher Costello]

Michael Feldman (mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu) wrote:

[SNIP]

: But the comma/period convention is at least standard in Europe.
: One can argue endlessly about the virtues of comma vs. period,
: but somehow the Europeans have managed to get agreement on _that_,
: which is quite rare for Europe.:-)

The British would be surprised to learn that either they use
the comma/period convention in the same way as the French,
Germans etc, or that they are not in Europe. Or, on second
thoughts, perhaps not so surprised.

: Mike Feldman

--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Christopher Costello                                                  |
| SNI ASW BA OS 7          SIEMENS        Tel:    +49 89 636 40367      |
| Carl Wery Str. 22        =======        Fax:    +49 89 636 45860      |
| 81739 Muenchen           NIXDORF        E-mail: C.Costello@mch.sni.de |
| Germany                                                               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Re: request Ada cource plan (was: Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99)

[David Weller]

In article <3gl0vq$sqd@due.uninett.no>, Sverre Brubaek <s424@ii.uib.no> wrote:
>I might be able to talk the powers that be here at UiB to adopt Ada95 as a first
>language, to do that i need some material though. What i need is recomendations
>of good books, a general plan for the cource (1 semester) and any other material

For a book reference for a first course, I've found Jan Skansholm's
"Ada From the Beginning (2nd Ed)" to be very useful.  It also covers
Ada95 throughout it.  I'm certain it would be suitable as a CS1
class.  I also believe Jan is from over there (Sweden?), making it
_slightly_ easier to reach the author :-)


-- 
      Frustrated with C, C++, Pascal, Fortran?  Ada95 _might_ be for you!
	  For all sorts of interesting Ada95 tidbits, run the command:
"finger dweller@starbase.neosoft.com | more" (or e-mail with "finger" as subj.)
	

Re: NOthing to do with Ada anymore (Re: Metrics)

[Fredrick Mbuya]

David Weller (dweller@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM) wrote:
: In article <3ggh6q$bpd@felix.seas.gwu.edu>,
: Michael Feldman <mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu> wrote:
: >Soft drinks In Europe tend to come in strange
: >(though metric) sizes, like 33 cl. Beer too, 
: 
: That's not strange!  33cl = ~12oz.  No retooling required in
: manufacturing plants :-)

I always thought this was so that when you tried to carry beer from one
country to the other the math would be easy.  3 X 33cl = ~1l
And _Every_ kmows that that meany that 1 sixpack = 2l = all you can bring
with you.

Note the .75l wine bottle I can't figure out though....

Just my .02 FIM,
Eric
-- 
------------------------------
Frederick Mbuya
Latolankatu 9 E 44
80160 Joensuu 16