Re: History of Ada - was Interested about number crunching in Ada

[anon@anon.org (anon)]

Just for your information!  The information that I used came from a 
Walnut Creek Ada CDROM, Nov 90 (Personal copy).  A copyrighted and 
licensed CD by Walnut Creek CDROM.

The CD contain the NYU GNAT compile for DEC (pdp-11), DOS, OS2 ver 
1.3 and pre 2.0.  For those who use Windows you had to use the DOS 
shell in version 3.x and GNAT DOS version.  The CD also had the Ada 
specs for Ada-78, Ada-80, Ada-83.

Note: The DOS (MSDOS or IBM DOS) version, allowed one to use the 
"pragma NO_RUN_TIME ;" to create a bootable stand-alone Ada 
program. But when Microsoft drop DOS so did GNAT drop its DOS 
version, bassically making the pragma functionally obsolete.

But when Ada-95 came out Walnut altered the CDROM and removed 
all binaries for Ada-83, replacing them with Ada-95 versions.  They 
also altered the spec to include only the Ada 95 and Ada 83 version.

But if you look on ACM you can find references to Ada-80 and Ada-78.
And there are a few web pages on a number of US military web sites 
that talking about Ada-78 and its creator DEC Ada Team.



Also, as most ITs will tell you all web sites can be attacked or Hacked 
into.  Just like SCO was during the firstpart of it legal battle with IBM.  
Also IT's can tell you there is no information on a web site that is 
absolute safe from hacker either. So, how can one FULLLY TRUST what 
is published on a web page if any good hacker can alter that web page.



In <46ca9b4e$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net>, "Stuart" <stuart@0.0> writes:
>"Gary Scott" <garylscott@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message 
>news:Dcryi.18691$eY.1026@newssvr13.news.prodigy.net...
>
>> Stuart wrote:
>>> "anon" <anon@anon.org> 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 
>
>