STARS Foundations Repository E-mail address

STARS Foundations Repository E-mail address

[Bill Wolfe]

  Inquiries concerning the STARS Foundations Repository, which 
  contains the (free) research and development products of the 
  STARS (Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems) 
  program, can be e-mailed to:

     STARS@NAVY.CMF.NRL.ARPA    (TCP/IP address [134.207.7.12])

  as well as telephoned to Ms. Lavonia Maddox at (202) 404-7335.

  Hawaiian callers may have to obtain operator assistance with
  the above telephone number, since the 404 exchange apparently
  is not directly accessible from Hawaii via some long-distance
  companies... 


  Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu

CORRECTION re: STARS Foundations

[Karl A. Nyberg]

In article <8467@hubcap.clemson.edu> wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu (Bill Wolfe) writes:
>
>  Inquiries concerning the STARS Foundations Repository, which 
>  contains the (free) research and development products of the 
>  STARS (Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems) 
>  program, can be e-mailed to:

FREE here does not necessarily mean "without cost".  Each of the components
in the repository can be had for $50 each duplicating costs, with a maximum
of $2000.  It is also not clear (to me) what the data rights on this
software are either.  It may be government owned, (and I didn't have to sign
any licensing forms to get it) but the one component that I ordered contains
a lot of copyright notices.  It also appears that one or more of the
original contractors are marketing "commercial" versions of their
developments (e.g., the X Windows binding, Universal File Names, etc.)

-- Karl --

Re: CORRECTION re: STARS Foundations

[William Thomas Wolfe, 2847]

From karl@grebyn.com (Karl A. Nyberg):
> the one component that I ordered contains
> a lot of copyright notices.  It also appears that one or more of the
> original contractors are marketing "commercial" versions of their
> developments (e.g., the X Windows binding, Universal File Names, etc.)

   Universal File Names was sent to me free of charge by the author,
   and it also contained an Ada Software Repository release header,
   so possibly some or all of the STARS stuff is also available via 
   that route (for info, email to ADA-SW-REQUEST@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL).

   No mention was made of any commercial version, but the article in 
   the Jan/Feb '90 issue of Ada Letters (pages 111-117) did mention 
   three "recommendations for improving UFN", i.e., proposed extensions,
   which sounded a lot like proposals for further STARS work.

   On the other side, I have heard that Unisys is planning to take its
   ACE product (basically an interactive Ada world) and do further work
   on it to the point of commercial viability, so apparently at least
   some of the STARS work is more research product than commercially
   useful product at the moment.  UFN, though, would seem to be a notable 
   exception in this regard. 

   Anyone have more detailed STARS Foundations Repository experiences?


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu