Where'd the PAL go?

Where'd the PAL go?

[Mike Werner]

I've heard the Public Ada Library mentioned a few times, so I went to
try and find it.  Through Yahoo I found a site labelled as the PAL in
France, but I'm getting a message that seems to translate (via
Babelfish) that the site isn't there anymore.  Could someone please
point me towards the PAL if it still exists?  I'd appreciate it.

As a side note regarding the various threads I've seen here regarding
"Ada vs [insert language of your choice}" - I'm a Computer Science
student (sophomore) and have so far experienced C and Ada.  So far I
*greatly* prefer Ada.  It just makes more sense to read - when I first
started I could read a chunk of Ada code and get the basic idea of what
it did.  Not so with C - it mostly looked like gibberish.  Plus I'm
finding it easier to do some things in Ada than I could do in C.  Though
bear in mind that I *am* still a beginner and am still doing what would
likely be to most of you as extremely simple stuff.  But from that
beginner's standpoint I'm finding Ada to be the way to go, largely
because I'm finding it easier to learn.
-- 
Mike Werner  KA8YSD           |  "Where do you want to go today?"
ICQ# 12934898                 |  "As far from Redmond as possible!"
'91 GS500E                    |
Morgantown WV                 |  Only dead fish go with the flow.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GU d-@ s:+ a- C++>$ UL++ P+ L+++ E W++ N++ !o w--- O- !M V-- PS+ PE+
 Y+ R+ !tv b+++(++++) DI+ D--- G e*>++ h! r++ y++++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Re: Where'd the PAL go?

[Matthew Heaney]

Mike Werner <mwerner@wvu.edu> writes:

> I've heard the Public Ada Library mentioned a few times, so I went to
> try and find it.

I have included a note below from Rick Conn about ASE.  He maintains the
PAL and can give you the scoop.

See also AdaBasis, based on the PAL:

<http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ifi/ps/ada-software/ada-software.html>

I got this link from visiting the ada home page, and following the
resources link.

<http://www.adahome.com/>



> As a side note regarding the various threads I've seen here regarding
> "Ada vs [insert language of your choice}" - I'm a Computer Science
> student (sophomore) and have so far experienced C and Ada.  So far I
> *greatly* prefer Ada.

That's good to hear.


> It just makes more sense to read - when I first started I could read a
> chunk of Ada code and get the basic idea of what it did.  Not so with
> C - it mostly looked like gibberish.  Plus I'm finding it easier to do
> some things in Ada than I could do in C.

Were the things you found easier to do in C than in Ada?  There may be a
simpler but non-obvious way to do it in Ada.


> Though bear in mind that I *am* still a beginner and am still doing
> what would likely be to most of you as extremely simple stuff.  But
> from that beginner's standpoint I'm finding Ada to be the way to go,
> largely because I'm finding it easier to learn.

You may find it helpful to study examples of Ada95 programming.  

I have converted every C++ example in the GoF Design Patterns book to
Ada95, and posted them to the ACM patterns list.  All of the examples
have been archived by month of posting.

<mailto:patterns@acm.org>
<http://www.acm.org/archives/patterns.html>


You can subscribe to the ACM patterns list by sending a message with the
body

subscribe patterns <your full name>


to the ACM mailing list server.

<mailto:listserv@acm.org>



(start of messge)
From: "Richard L. Conn" <Rick.Conn@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      ASE Website and CDROM
To: TEAM-ADA@ACM.ORG
Date:         Tue, 23 Feb 1999 02:57:48 -0500
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Hi, Everyone,

For those of you who have not yet tried it out, the
Ada and Software Engineering (ASE) website (with its
associated 2-disc CDROM distribution) is freely
available to you.  This website and CDROM is like
"the best of the Public Ada Library plus extras"
with the added flare of serving as an archive
for historical purposes.  The ASE URL (which
has a limit of 3,600 simultaneous users) is:
  ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/ase/index.htm

The website contains the same material as the
CDROM with the exception that the Card Catalog
and index on the website is oriented to the
website, while the Card Catalog and index on the
CDROM 2-disc set is oriented to the set.

A second ASE website is expected to come online
later this week.  I'll post another message with
instructions when it is ready.

ASE's thrust is Software (and Systems) Engineering, and
(by the way) Ada is an excellent language to support
this activity.  You can read more about ASE from its
writeup on:
  http://www.cdrom.com/titles/prog/ada.htm

You can also use this site to order a copy of the
ASE CDROM 2-disc set if you wish.

The ASE 2-disc CDROM set was distributed at:
  SIGAda '98
  Ada-Belgium '98
It will also be distributed at:
  1999 DoD Software Technology Conference
  1999 ACM Computer Science Education Conference
  Spring COMDEX

Some statistics:
  Disc ID   # Dirs   # Files        # Bytes
  =======   ======   =======  =============
 ASE 01_01     415     6,859    579,955,622
 ASE 01_02     271     2,838    575,871,444
               ===     =====  =============
 Total         686     9,697  1,155,827,066

  Of these files, many of them are ZIP files.
  The total number of files (counting those
  in ZIP files) is over 73,500.

Plans are now forming to produce a 3rd ASE
CDROM, ASE 01_03.  As its ID implies, this
CDROM will be an update to the existing
2-disc set, and the ASE Card Catalog (with
Index) will cover all three discs.

For those of you who are Ada fans, the Card
Catalog and index were created using a family
of programs written in Ada called the Generic
Web-based Reuse Library (GWRL).  GWRL weaves
a web from information contained in asset
descriptors, forming a hypertext document that
is compatible with HTML 2.0 and up.  GWRL
(with its Ada95 source code) is included
in the ASE.

Disclaimer: I am managing the ASE website and
acting as editor of the website and CDROMs as
a public service.  I receive no income from the
sale of the CDROMs.  I wish to thank the CDROM
publisher, Walnut Creek CDROM, for supporting
this activity.  I wish to also thank those
named in the ASE Card Catalog for their
contributions to the Public Ada Library and
other public distribution resources.

Rick Conn
ASE Manager
---------------------------------------
Richard Conn, ASE, PAL, and SDE Manager
http://xenadu.home.mindspring.com/
(end of message)

Re: Where'd the PAL go?

[dennison]

In article <m3oglcvlvp.fsf@mheaney.ni.net>,
  Matthew Heaney <matthew_heaney@acm.org> wrote:
> I have included a note below from Rick Conn about ASE.  He maintains the
> PAL and can give you the scoop.

> (start of messge)
> From: "Richard L. Conn" <Rick.Conn@MINDSPRING.COM>
> Subject:      ASE Website and CDROM

> ASE's thrust is Software (and Systems) Engineering, and
> (by the way) Ada is an excellent language to support
> this activity.  You can read more about ASE from its
> writeup on:
>   http://www.cdrom.com/titles/prog/ada.htm

When I tried this URL, I got the following message:

The file you were looking for was not found. However, a similar file was
found at http://www.cdrom.com/titles/prog/ada.phtml

That URL does seem to work.

T.E.D.

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/       Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own    

Re: Where'd the PAL go?

[Mike Werner]

Matthew Heaney wrote:
<edited>
> I have included a note below from Rick Conn about ASE.  He maintains the
> PAL and can give you the scoop.
> 
> See also AdaBasis, based on the PAL:
> 
> <http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ifi/ps/ada-software/ada-software.html>

Thank you for the link - it's been added to my collection.

> 
> I got this link from visiting the ada home page, and following the
> resources link.
> 
> <http://www.adahome.com/>

That's also a good one - I'm still working through the list there. 
Lot's to see on that site.

> Were the things you found easier to do in C than in Ada?  There may be a
> simpler but non-obvious way to do it in Ada.

Actually, one thing about C that I prefered over the Ada version was the
IO statements - i.e. put and get.  I like being able to put the entire
thing on one line, text and variables and the line feed.  If there's an
Ada equivalent I'd love to know about it.  If not, perhaps I'll create
my own if I ever get good enough at coding. ;)  As I had said, I'm quite
new to programming.  In Ada I'm just to the point of doing my own
generic packages (done one and in process of doing another - both for
school assignments) and we just started dealing with dynamic memory
(current assignment requires it).  So that should be an indication of
where I stand.  I'm sure as time goes on I'll find things to gripe about
with *any* language I learn.  But I figure as long as I go in with that
assumption I'll not get as peeved as I would otherwise.

> You may find it helpful to study examples of Ada95 programming.

That's the exact reason I was asking about the PAL - I'm collecting
links to various info sources and code repositories are a part of my
list.  Looking at code examples is one of the ways I learn best.

> I have converted every C++ example in the GoF Design Patterns book to
> Ada95, and posted them to the ACM patterns list.  All of the examples
> have been archived by month of posting.

I was considering joining the ACM - as I understand it since I am a CS
student I believe that qualifies me.  I've not yet decided.

> (start of messge)
<message snipped>

Appreciate that - I'll check those sites soon.  I've been to cdrom.com's
sites (both ftp and http) a number of times looking for miscellaneous
Linux stuff - they've quite a lot of good stuff there.  I may just
decide to be lazy and buy the CDROM package.
-- 
Mike Werner  KA8YSD           |  "Where do you want to go today?"
ICQ# 12934898                 |  "As far from Redmond as possible!"
'91 GS500E                    |
Morgantown WV                 |  Only dead fish go with the flow.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GU d-@ s:+ a- C++>$ UL++ P+ L+++ E W++ N++ !o w--- O- !M V-- PS+ PE+
 Y+ R+ !tv b+++(++++) DI+ D--- G e*>++ h! r++ y++++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Re: Where'd the PAL go?

[dennison]

In article <3701C1A0.F6956956@wvu.edu>,
  Mike Werner <mwerner@wvu.edu> wrote:
> Matthew Heaney wrote:

> > Were the things you found easier to do in C than in Ada?  There may be a
> > simpler but non-obvious way to do it in Ada.
>
> Actually, one thing about C that I prefered over the Ada version was the
> IO statements - i.e. put and get.  I like being able to put the entire
> thing on one line, text and variables and the line feed.  If there's an
> Ada equivalent I'd love to know about it.  If not, perhaps I'll create

Sure. Just use Put_Line, and the 'image attribute on any numeric values. "&"
can be used to tack strings together. eg:

   for Loop_Count in 1..5 loop
      Text_IO.Put_Line ("We have executed" & Integer'image(Loop_Count) &
         " loop(s).");
   end loop;


should produce:

We have executed 1 loop(s).
We have executed 2 loop(s).
We have executed 3 loop(s).
We have executed 4 loop(s).
We have executed 5 loop(s).


Admittedly this doesn't give you the powerful formatting capabilities that
are available in C's printf. But the cool thing is that the same string can
be used in an assignment statement as well. You can also pass it to other
routines for further processing. Combine that with the routines in the
Ada.Strings packages, and I think Ada's string handling is actually more
powerful and more convienent than C's.

T.E.D.

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/       Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own    

Re: Where'd the PAL go?

[Mike Werner]

dennison@telepath.com wrote:
<edited>
> Sure. Just use Put_Line, and the 'image attribute on any numeric values. "&"
> can be used to tack strings together. eg:

Thank you.  If nothing else that gives me someplace to start.  I've not
yet worked with the strings package either, but as I get the opportunity
I'll look into that as well.
-- 
Mike Werner  KA8YSD           |  "Where do you want to go today?"
ICQ# 12934898                 |  "As far from Redmond as possible!"
'91 GS500E                    |
Morgantown WV                 |  Only dead fish go with the flow.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GU d-@ s:+ a- C++>$ UL++ P+ L+++ E W++ N++ !o w--- O- !M V-- PS+ PE+
 Y+ R+ !tv b+++(++++) DI+ D--- G e*>++ h! r++ y++++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------