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=-0.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FROM_NUMERIC_TLD autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,c3d0e99376a4f379 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news2.google.com!news2.google.com!news.glorb.com!news-peer-lilac.gradwell.net!not-for-mail From: "Stuart" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <1187235764.909133.180650@19g2000hsx.googlegroups.com> <46c49e6e$1_6@news.bluewin.ch> <46c56070$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net> <46c9516a$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net> Subject: Re: History of Ada - was Interested about number crunching in Ada Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:14:21 +0100 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3138 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Response Message-ID: <46ca9b4e$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net> X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: glkas0286.greenlnk.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 20.133.0.1 X-Trace: 1187684070 news.gradwell.net 640 dnews/20.133.0.1:10006 X-Complaints-To: news-abuse@gradwell.net Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:1524 Date: 2007-08-21T09:14:21+01:00 List-Id: "Gary Scott" wrote in message news:Dcryi.18691$eY.1026@newssvr13.news.prodigy.net... > Stuart wrote: >> "anon" wrote in message >> news:Qkrxi.438601$p47.325792@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net... >> >>>First, I was talking about the close source Libraries that the >>>DOD CONTRACTED the DEC corporation to write in 77 - 78. Using >>>its PDP series computer. >>> >>>Also, I was only talking about before Ada 83 the previous >>>non-commerical versions. The first complete commercial Ada language >>>was in 83 but DEC had developed the Jean Ichbiah design a long time >>>before 83. And in 83 companies such as IBM, SUN, and even CII >>>Honeywell Bull had to pay DEC for the source code of those close >>>source code libraries. The library source code will still be under >>>DEC control or its owners until around 2050. >>> >>>Ada was originally designed by a team led by Jean Ichbiah of CII >>>Honeywell Bull under contract to the US DOD in 77. But another DOD >>>department contract DEC to write the first Ada compiler in 77 - 78. >>>Some 5 to 6 years before Ada 83. >> >> >> This [the bit about DEC] seems to have been totally overlooked in the >> 'history' recorded at the AdaPower web-site. There the early development >> of an Ada 'compiler' is associated with New York University (NYU) and the >> Ada/Ed model (c1980). >> >> Do you have any references for the role of DEC? I am also unclear about >> just what these 'libraries' actually are; could you elaborate some more >> please? There seems to be a scarcity of information about this - even on >> the HP web-site (which still provides the supporting documentation for >> the DEC Ada product). > > One of the DEC compiler team members posts in comp.lang.fortran frequently > (Steve Lionel). You could probably post there or contact him directly, or > via the intel fortran forum (Intel bought the bulk of the DEC compiler > team). He's repeatedly stated that Ada is his favorite language, so he's > likely to be interested in contributed. Thanks for the suggestion Gary - however in the absence of any other references from 'anon', and given the general direction the thread is going, I do not think that Steve would be able to add anything to what is already known. The recent posting by 'anon', decrying the AdaIC information (and an incredulous belief that something released in the US, to its general citezens, under FoI could somehow remain secret from the rest of the world) are rather telling. My conclusion is that the established history given at AdaIC and AdaPower, as far as the development of the Ada language is concerned, is reasonably accurate and substantially complete. ['Anon' may have done better to have gone with the conspiracy theory that the US was creating sabotaged compilers to go with the VAXen that the Eastern block countries were acquiring by subterfuge (they being embargoed technology).] -- Stuart