Ada News Brief - 96-07-19.txt [1/1]

Ada News Brief - 96-07-19.txt [1/1]

[AdaIC]

Ada News Brief
Week Ending: July 19, 1996

***********************************************************************
ARA BEGINS PROGRAM TO MAKE Ada 95 THE MOST PORTABLE LANGUAGE
***********************************************************************
The Ada Resource Association (ARA) announced a program that 
will standardize how Ada is used and implemented with 
external interfaces. The ARA has formed the Ada Common 
Environment (ACE), which will coordinate with Ada compiler 
and tool vendors to ensure that all Ada implementations 
support standard external interfaces. The ARA intends to 
build on the new international standard for Ada 95 -- which 
provides many facilities for integrating multi-language 
software systems -- with the goal of making Ada the most 
portable language in software development.

The customer-focused program will enable third party vendors 
to build more powerful tools and supplemental systems with 
the assurance that all Ada systems can support them. The new 
standards will benefit Ada software products by increasing 
the range of platforms to which applications can be ported. 
The advantage to end users will be greater portability for 
their code from compiler to compiler and target to target.

For a complete copy of the ARA announcement, contact the 
AdaIC at 1/800-232-4211 or via the World Wide Web:
	http://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/AdaIC/news/

SOURCE:
Ada Resource Association Press Release. July 16, 1996.

********************************************************
GNAT COMPILER TO BE INCLUDED IN VERSION 2.0 OF COE
********************************************************
Version 2.0 of the Common Operating Environment (COE) will 
include support for an Ada 95 compiler, among other things, 
according to Rear Adm. John Gauss, deputy director of DISA 
for interoperability and engineering. DISA is including the 
Gnu Ada 95 Translator (commonly referred to as the GNAT 
Compiler) as shareware. "Ada 95 has lived up to the ads" on 
improvements over Ada 83, Gauss said, referring to the 
object-oriented version released last year. "We hope to 
explore the semantic similarities between Ada 95 and Java to 
see if we can cross-compile applications."

SOURCE:
Constance, Paul. "DISA plans to release latest version of 	
	COE this month," Government Computer News. June 24, 
	1996: 76.

*************************************************************
THE USMC FINDS SUCCESS WITH Ada ... TWO MONTHS AHEAD OF 
TIME!
*************************************************************
The AJPO mentored USMC Portable Recording System has been 
re-engineered in Ada 95 and field tested at White Sands, two 
months ahead of schedule. The previous PRS software was 
written in four languages and required transport of an 
entire shelter housing the proprietary hardware to the field 
for exercises.

SOURCE:
Ada Joint Program Office

********************************
NEW LEADERSHIP AT THE Ada UK
********************************
The Ada User Journal has recently seen some changes in its 
leadership with Bill Taylor assuming the post of Chairman 
and Jim Briggs the role of Editor of the Journal. Taylor 
will be replacing John Barnes who stood down after many 
years as Chairman and has accepted the post of Vice-
Chairman. Briggs is replacing Dan Simpson, editor of the 
Journal for over five years, who will now carry on as a 
member of the Committee of Management and the Journal's 
Editorial Board.

Briggs aims to broaden the range of material published in 
the Journal by expanding the existing reviews and news 
sections and including commentary and opinion, "If you have 
something to say about Ada, the Ada User Journal is a 
suitable forum," he states.

SOURCE:
Ada User Journal. Vol. 17, No..2. June 1996.

******************************
Ada UK OFFERS Ada 95 SEMINAR
******************************
Ada UK is offering an Ada 95 seminar to Software Engineering 
teaching and research staff (at UK institutions) to discuss 
the benefits of Ada 95 as a teaching language. The seminar 
will be held September 16 & 17, 1996 in York, UK. For more 
information, contact:

Helen Byard, Ada UK Administrator
P.O. Box 322, York, YO1 3GY
Tel: 01904 412740, Fax: 01904 426702
E-mail: h.byard@bton.ac.uk  

******************************
TWO FREE TRIPS TO TRI-Ada '96
******************************
SIGAda will be sending two members of SIGAda local chapters 
to Philadelphia, PA to attend TRI-Ada '96, December 3-7, 
1996. Round trip travel to Philadelphia, room at the 
conference hotel, and full registration for the conference 
will be free. The two award winners will be selected by a 
random drawing in September, 1996 from candidates submitted 
by SIGAda local chapters. Only members of local chapters 
will be eligible to compete for the awards. Contact your 
local chapter for details. If you have further questions, 
contact Lewis Gray, SIGAda VC-Liaison, at adapros@aol.com.

SOURCE:
ACM Ada Letters. July/August 1996.

******************************************************
NEW VERSION OF LOVELACE Ada TUTORIAL AVAILABLE!
******************************************************
Version 5.4 of Lovelace, an Ada 95 tutorial, is now 
available. It includes some minor improvements and a bugfix 
for "Small" (the small adventure game). Check out the 
Lovelace tutorial at: 
http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/Tutorials/Lovelace/lovelace.htm
For the curious ... Lovelace is now referenced in Gamelan in 
the section "Gamelan/Programming in Java/Documents about 
Java". View Gamelan at: 
http://www.gamelan.com

SOURCE:
David A. Wheeler

*********************************
PC Ada COMPILER JUST RELEASED!
*********************************
DDC-I, Inc. has recently added to its DDC-I Ada Compiler 
Systems (DACS) by porting the DACS-80x86 to a PC/Windows NT 
platform. It can generate applications to run native on NT 
PC's or remotely on embedded 80x86 targets. DACS-PC for 
Windows NT is designed for large scale programming by 
supporting distributed development of Ada applications and 
by providing project-level controls to set tool options as 
well as to build and manage programs. 

For more information, contact Jennifer Sanchez, DDC-I, Inc. 
at 602/275-7172 or check out the DDC-I web page at 
http://www.ddci.com.

SOURCE:
DDC-I, Inc. News Release: June 30, 1996.

*****************************
Ada TESTING TOOL RELEASED
*****************************
Rational Software Corporation recently introduced the next 
generation of TestMate Ada, a comprehensive tool that tests 
complex Ada systems. TestMate Ada version 2.0 supports all 
test activities in the testing cycle, including test 
planning, test design, test-case creation, execution, and 
results analysis. Third-party tools, such as capture/relay 
testing tools, can be used in conjunction with TestMate.

For more information, contact Rational at: marketing 
@rational.com or Tel: 408/496-3600.

SOURCE:
"Rational Debuts Integration, Testing Tools," Object  
	Magazine, Product Track. July 1996: 90.

******************************************************
The AdaIC's "Ada News Brief" is a compilation of summaries from
Ada-related articles in trade magazines, newsletters and press
releases. The AdaIC welcomes suggestions for and pointers to Ada-
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