SEIC News, W/E Dec. 20, 1996

SEIC News, W/E Dec. 20, 1996

[SEIC]

Software Engineering News
Week Ending:  December 20, 1996

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ARC BECOMES ARMY'S GCCS REPOSITORY
Topic:  Reuse

The Army Reuse Center is pleased to announce the establishment of a 
Global Command and Control System (GCCS) repository.  The ARC, as the 
Army's node to the Defense Software Repository System (DSRS), has been 
selected by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to be the 
Army's centralized distribution point for all GCCS components.  The 
repository will contain the latest versions of GCCS software, 
documentation, test plans, and test data.  The following components are 
available to all users of the Army Library in the GCCS repository:  
Scheduling and Movement (S&M); Scheduling and Movement Database (SMDB); 
AdHoc Query (Oracle); Medical Planning and Execution System (MEPES); 
Non-Unit Personnel Generator (NPG); and Information Management 
System/Reference File Manager (IMSRM).

For more information, contact Simone Brookshire (703) 806-3580 or DSN 
656-3580.

SOURCE:  "ARC Becomes the Army's GCCS Repository," ARC News. December 
1996. v5 n4. p. 10.

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ADA RIDES A JAVA WAVE
Topic:  Ada 

Ada received a boost this past month thanks to Java and the World Wide Web. 
That was the verdict of attendees at last week's Tri-Ada '96 conference, 
held in Philadelphia, PA. The Java connection will come via a new 
technology from Intermetrics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) called AppletMagic. 
It takes high-level Ada programs and converts them into Java byte code, 
which can be executed on Netscape Navigator and other Java-capable browsers.

Ada advocates at the conference also said Ada is poised to move into 
real-time applications-particularly those running on single board 
computers-in a big way. That market segment is being jump-started by the 
availability of technologies such as Gnat, a heavy hitting Ada compiler 
that supports real-time priority levels, scheduling and queuing.

"Ada's been on a steady growth path and it's going to a lot of new places,"
said Tucker Taft, chief scientist at Intermetrics. "People love Ada when they
use it..." Ada's advance into the commercial world could also be aided by 
a new wave of technologies tuned for real-time applications. "The future 
of Ada really lies in high-assurance applications and in real-time apps," 
said David Fisher, a keynote speaker who is a senior member of the 
technical staff at the Software Engineering Institute (Pittsburgh).

To that end, Ada Core Technologies Inc. (New York) is offering up its 
Gnat 2.0.1 compiler, which implements full support for the complex real-time 
requirements detailed in the Ada "Annex D" specification.

"The goal is to reduce non-deterministic behavior as much as possible," 
said Robert Dewar, president of Ada Core Technologies. "Real-time 
programs have a hard enough time as it is. You want to give them a 
platform where you know exactly how they'll run."

Dewar noted that developers have long been moving full-bore on the 
real-time front, constructing kernel-based apps. "Most recently, we are seeing 
real-time Ada applications being built on top of full-blown operating 
systems like Windows NT and Solaris," he said.

Information on AppletMagic is available at http://www.inmet.com.


SOURCE:  Electronic Engineering Times -- 12-09-96, p. 04. Copyright 1996, 
CMP Publications, Inc. 

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FINAL REMINDER: RELIABLE SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES (Ada-Europe'97)
Topic: Ada

RELIABLE SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES (Ada-Europe'97) London, June 2-6 1997 

A reminder that the final deadline for submission of papers is December 
31, 1996. See the Conference's Web page for details of suggested 
topics and how to submit at 
<http://www.sis.port.ac.uk/adauk/Ada-Europe/Conference/1997/>.
 
Note that only FULL PAPERS will be accepted for this deadline.

To assist in planning, if you are intending to submit a paper, organizers
would be grateful if you would let them know now.

Organized by Ada UK on behalf of Ada-Europe, in co-operation with ACM
SIGAda. For further information, email the conference organizer on
<admin@adauk.org.uk>.

SOURCE:  Jim Briggs <briggsjs@sis.port.ac.uk>.

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