ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Javier Miranda]

   I am glad to announce version 1.0 of my free book on the GNAT
Run-Time. It is already available at:

             http://gnat.webhop.info
             http://www.iuma.ulpgc.es/users/jmiranda

   The first address is an "easy-to-remember" access to the second
address, which is my personal web page.

The major contributions of this version are:

   - The document is now integrated with the GNAT 3.15p sources.

   - 176 hyper-links to the GNAT sources have been added
     (previous version had 126 hyper-links; the new version has
      302 hyper-links). This simplifies the use of the book to
      read the GNAT sources.

   - 23 bugs reported by Jose Gonzalez Rodriguez (student of the
     University of Almeria, Spain) have been corrected.

   - The English text has been improved by professor David Shea
     (Faculty of Translation and Interpretation, University of
      Las Palmas de Gran Canaria).

   - A new index has been added at the end of the book. This index
     provides a fast access to any concept discussed in the book.

In addition, the access to the HTML version of the GNAT sources
is now faster than in previous beta versions.


--- Javier Miranda

University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Canary Islands
Spain



-------------------------------------------------------------
 Title      : A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE GNU ADA RUN-TIME
 Version    : 1.0
 Last Update: December, 14, 2002
 Author     : Javier Miranda
 Access     : http://www.iuma.ulpgc.es/users/jmiranda
 Chapters   :
   1. The GNAT Project
   2. Task Types and Objects
   3. The Rendezvous
   4. Protected Objects
   5. Time and clocks
   6. Interrupts (upgraded)
   7. Exceptions
   8. Abortion
   9. Bibliography.
-------------------------------------------------------------

 Goal:

  To provide the Ada community an On-line book which can
  be used for research and teaching.

 Brief Description:

  HTML Document which describes the behavior of the
  Run-Time of the free GNU Ada compiler (GNAT). Its main
  features are:

  - It is free. Permission is granted to copy, distribute
    and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU
    Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later
    version published by the Free Software Foundation.

  - The html version of the document is linked with the
    html version of the GNAT 3.15p run-time sources. More
    than 300 hyper-links provide fast access to the source
    files.

  - All html files of the GNAT sources are also inter-linked.
    This enables the reader a quick access to:
      1. Declaration of Run-Time variables and types.
      2. Subprograms called (thus the web navigator can
         be used to follow the flow of execution of the
         Run-Time).

  - It is linked with the Annotated Ada Reference Manual
    (Technical Corrigendum 1). Any reference to the AARM
    has a link to the corresponding section.

  - Most of the papers referenced to in the book are
    accessible from the NEC CiteSeer Scientific Literature
    Digital Library (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cs)

  - The book is also available in PostScript, PDF and DVI
    files for printing. In this case, references to
    GNAT source files are placed in footnotes.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Javier Miranda. Canary Islands (Spain), 2002.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Victor Porton]

In article <mailman.1039894383.18184.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
	Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
> 
>    I am glad to announce version 1.0 of my free book on the GNAT
> Run-Time. It is already available at:

1. Why GNAT RM and UG are not enough?

2. Webmasters please put the links from AdaPower and AdaHome
websites.

AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Richard Riehle]

Victor Porton wrote:

> 2. Webmasters please put the links from AdaPower and AdaHome
> websites.

Isn't AdaHome now defunct?  Didn't we determine
some time ago that no one maintains this site anymore?

Richard Riehle

Re: AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Victor Porton]

In article <3DFCDF64.11DB7ACC@adaworks.com>,
	Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com> writes:
> Victor Porton wrote:
> 
>> 2. Webmasters please put the links from AdaPower and AdaHome
>> websites.
> 
> Isn't AdaHome now defunct?  Didn't we determine
> some time ago that no one maintains this site anymore?

Any site replacing it (except of AdaPower)?

Re: AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Richard Riehle]

Victor Porton wrote:

> In article <3DFCDF64.11DB7ACC@adaworks.com>,
>         Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com> writes:
> > Victor Porton wrote:
> >
> >> 2. Webmasters please put the links from AdaPower and AdaHome
> >> websites.
> >
> > Isn't AdaHome now defunct?  Didn't we determine
> > some time ago that no one maintains this site anymore?
>
> Any site replacing it (except of AdaPower)?

A good site is http://www.adaic.org

Richard Riehle

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Rolf Ebert]

porton@ex-code.com (Victor Porton) wrote in message news:<3dfcc23e$0$305$bed64819@news.gradwell.net>...
> In article <mailman.1039894383.18184.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
> 	Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
> > 
> >    I am glad to announce version 1.0 of my free book on the GNAT
> > Run-Time. It is already available at:
> 
> 1. Why GNAT RM and UG are not enough?

Read Javier's book and you will know why :-)

Actually, the RM and UG are basically user documentation, whereas
Javier's book explains the internal workings of the compiler (partly)
and the run-time library (mainly).

The online pages have already helped me a lot to understand how tasks,
protected objects and the internals of "delay (until)" are implemented
in GNAT.

> 2. Webmasters please put the links from AdaPower and AdaHome
> websites.

Yes, please do so.

Vielen Dank, merci beaucoup, thanks a lot (sorry no Spain) to Javier
Miranda!

    Rolf

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Javier Miranda]

Victor Porton wrote:

>In article <mailman.1039894383.18184.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
>    Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
>  
>
>>   I am glad to announce version 1.0 of my free book on the GNAT
>>Run-Time. It is already available at:
>>    
>>
>
>1. Why GNAT RM and UG are not enough?
>
>  
>
The GNAT RM gives a complete description of GNAT specific
features which can be used by programmers to improve the
efficiency of their Ada programs. It is thus writen for users of the
compiler.

   On the contrary, my book gives a description of the current
implementation of the Ada Run-Time (how it uses the POSIX
services to implement the Ada semantics). This is a complete
different point of view which is important for teaching on
systems programming (specially real-time concepts) and
compilers.

--- Javier Miranda

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
A Detailed Description of the GNU Ada Run-Time (J.Miranda, 2002)
Free book available at:
     http://www.iuma.ulpgc.es/users/jmiranda
----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Wes Groleau]

>>>Isn't AdaHome now defunct?  Didn't we determine
>>>some time ago that no one maintains this site anymore?
>>
>>Any site replacing it (except of AdaPower)?
> 
> A good site is http://www.adaic.org

Perhaps Ada fans (or site-rot opponents) could
occasionally look for links to AdaHome and
politely suggest better sites to the webmasters.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Wojtek Narczynski]

> In article <mailman.1039894383.18184.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
> 	Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
> > 
> >    I am glad to announce version 1.0 of my free book on the GNAT
> > Run-Time. It is already available at:

Javier,

Thank you very much for this book. Although I am using it only to
alleviate my pathological curiosity of how Ada works internally, the
value of your work, not only for this application, is enormous!

> 1. Why GNAT RM and UG are not enough?

Victor,

I encourage you to take a look at Javier's book, which will wholly
answer your question.

Thanks & regards,
Wojtek

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Victor Porton]

In article <mailman.1040039941.9447.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
	Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
> Victor Porton wrote:
> 
>>In article <mailman.1039894383.18184.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
>>    Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
>>  
>>>   I am glad to announce version 1.0 of my free book on the GNAT
>>>Run-Time. It is already available at:
>>
>>1. Why GNAT RM and UG are not enough?
>>
> The GNAT RM gives a complete description of GNAT specific
> features which can be used by programmers to improve the
> efficiency of their Ada programs. It is thus writen for users of the
> compiler.
> 
>    On the contrary, my book gives a description of the current
> implementation of the Ada Run-Time (how it uses the POSIX
> services to implement the Ada semantics). This is a complete
> different point of view which is important for teaching on
> systems programming (specially real-time concepts) and
> compilers.

I'm just a user. So will this book benefit me as a GNAT user
except of that I would possibly learn something new about
system programming in general?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Javier Miranda]

porton@ex-code.com wrote:

>In article <mailman.1040039941.9447.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
>    Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
>  
>
>>Victor Porton wrote:
>>    
>>
>I'm just a user. So will this book benefit me as a GNAT user
>except of that I would possibly learn something new about
>system programming in general?
>  
>
You will learn why your program run.

-- Javier
----------------------------------------------------------------
A Detailed Description of the GNU Ada Run-Time (J.Miranda, 2002)
Free book available at:
     http://www.iuma.ulpgc.es/users/jmiranda
----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Javier Miranda]

wojtek@power.com.pl wrote:

>>In article <mailman.1039894383.18184.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
>>  Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
>>    
>>
>>>   I am glad to announce version 1.0 of my free book on the GNAT
>>>Run-Time. It is already available at:
>>>      
>>>
>
>Javier,
>
>Thank you very much for this book. Although I am using it only to
>alleviate my pathological curiosity of how Ada works internally, the
>value of your work, not only for this application, is enormous!
>  
>
Wojtek,

  The effort invested in writing the book has been also enormous! The only
references I had were the GNAT sources and the papers found in WEB
written by professor Ted Baker (FSU), some of them now out-of-date.
In addition to the technical document, I also had to add the hyper-links 
to the
Run-Time sources. In the beta versions I initially did all the work
by hand (a lot of work!). In this version I have writen some scripts
which facititate to me this work.

   One of the main benefits of the free technology is that we can learn 
a lot
from it (at least I did!). In the case of Ada, GNAT is an excellent compiler
which gives many possibilities for research and teaching (not only about Ada
but also about POSIX and, in general, Software  Enginneering). I assume
the book has bugs (and things to improve). From here I request help to have
up-to-date documents which give details to a big community of researchers
and students which can also learn from it.

Thanks for your comments !

--- Javier

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
A Detailed Description of the GNU Ada Run-Time (J.Miranda, 2002)
Free book available at:
     http://www.iuma.ulpgc.es/users/jmiranda
----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[Victor Porton]

In article <mailman.1040061302.21020.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
	Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
> porton@ex-code.com wrote:
> 
>>In article <mailman.1040039941.9447.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
>>    Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
>>
>>>Victor Porton wrote:
>>>    
>>>
>>I'm just a user. So will this book benefit me as a GNAT user
>>except of that I would possibly learn something new about
>>system programming in general?
>>  
>>
> You will learn why your program run.

We are more interested in the cases why it does not run
like possible bad interinfluences of Ada tasks and POSIX
threads...

Re: ANNOUNCE: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book (version 1.0)

[javiermirandag]

porton@ex-code.com (Victor Porton) wrote:

>In article <mailman.1040061302.21020.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
>    Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
>> porton@ex-code.com wrote:
>> 
>>>In article <mailman.1040039941.9447.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>,
>>>    Javier Miranda <javiermirandag@netscape.net> writes:
>>>
>>>>Victor Porton wrote:
>>>>    
>>>>
>>>I'm just a user. So will this book benefit me as a GNAT user
>>>except of that I would possibly learn something new about
>>>system programming in general?
>>>  
>>>
>> You will learn why your program run.
>
>We are more interested in the cases why it does not run
>like possible bad interinfluences of Ada tasks and POSIX
>threads...

Victor,

That's is another thing you can read in the book (chapters 2 and 3).
In addition, in chapter 4 you can learn how protected objects are
implemented (with POSIX mutexes), and in chapter 6 you can learn
how the POSIX signals are handled by the Run-Time to implement
the Ada interrupts semantics.

   In general, understanding the underlying technology helps you
writing better programs.

-- Javier Miranda
----------------------------------------------------------------
A Detailed Description of the GNU Ada Run-Time (J.Miranda, 2002)
Free book available at:
     http://www.iuma.ulpgc.es/users/jmiranda
----------------------------------------------------------------



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Re: AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Jeffrey Creem]

Wes Groleau" <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:V7lL9.2264$c6.2637@bos-> Perhaps Ada fans (or site-rot opponents) could
> occasionally look for links to AdaHome and
> politely suggest better sites to the webmasters.
>

I've done that. Also both David Botton and myself have tried to by the
adahome domain each time it comes up for renewal.  The last time, it was
past expiration for about 30 days before the prior owner renewed it.

I recommend that everyone remove links to adahome from their own pages since
sites like google score (partially) based on number of sites linking to a
site.

If you want to link to it, do so in a non html link (plain text) and try to
obscure the plain text a little so the google bots don't find it.

Re: AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Christopher Browne]

In the last exciting episode, "Jeffrey Creem" <jeff@thecreems.com> wrote::
> Wes Groleau" <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote in message
> news:V7lL9.2264$c6.2637@bos-> Perhaps Ada fans (or site-rot opponents) could
>> occasionally look for links to AdaHome and
>> politely suggest better sites to the webmasters.
>
> I've done that. Also both David Botton and myself have tried to by
> the adahome domain each time it comes up for renewal.  The last
> time, it was past expiration for about 30 days before the prior
> owner renewed it.

VeriSign Global Registry offers the functionality where domains will
be automatically renewed when they expire; the owners have to then pay
for the renewal, which presumably is happening in this case.

If Kempe Software Capital Enterprises want to keep the domain, they
are certainly free to do so, and you can't stop them...
-- 
(concatenate 'string "cbbrowne" "@ntlug.org")
http://cbbrowne.com/info/unix.html
Save your burned out bulbs for me, I'm building my own dark room.

Re: AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Jean-Pierre Rosen]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 906 bytes --]


"Jeffrey Creem" <jeff@thecreems.com> a �crit dans le message news: IjEL9.389150$QZ.61332@sccrnsc02...
> Wes Groleau" <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote in message
> news:V7lL9.2264$c6.2637@bos-> Perhaps Ada fans (or site-rot opponents) could
> > occasionally look for links to AdaHome and
> > politely suggest better sites to the webmasters.
> >
>
> I've done that. Also both David Botton and myself have tried to by the
> adahome domain each time it comes up for renewal.  The last time, it was
> past expiration for about 30 days before the prior owner renewed it.
>
So it would be possible for someone to check the expiration, and if by chance the owner doesn't renew timely,
rap the name at day D+1 and put a page saying "go to AdaPower instead"?

--
---------------------------------------------------------
           J-P. Rosen (rosen@adalog.fr)
Visit Adalog's web site at http://www.adalog.fr

Re: AdaHome: was: Free GNU Ada Run-Time Book

[Randy Brukardt]

Jeffrey Creem wrote in message ...
>Wes Groleau" <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote in message
>news:V7lL9.2264$c6.2637@bos-> Perhaps Ada fans (or site-rot opponents)
could
>> occasionally look for links to AdaHome and
>> politely suggest better sites to the webmasters.
>
>I've done that. Also both David Botton and myself have tried to by the
>adahome domain each time it comes up for renewal.  The last time, it
was
>past expiration for about 30 days before the prior owner renewed it.


The only problem with that is that then we would lose access to the
material there, much of which isn't anywhere else. The obvious example
is Lovelace. We'd be happy to host it on AdaIC, but we'd need to get
permission from the author.

This is the same reason why the ancient AdaIC material is still on-line.
It gets plenty of hits, too (and not just from web crawlers). And its
why AdaHome will be included in the Ada-wide search engine we're working
on - if the information needed is there, and nowhere else more recent,
I'd rather they found it there than not at all.

               Randy Brukardt
               Technical Webmaster, AdaIC.org