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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!newsfeed.fsmpi.rwth-aachen.de!reality.xs3.de!news.jacob-sparre.dk!loke.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jacob Sparre Andersen Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Your wish list for Ada 202X Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:54:05 +0100 Organization: Jacob Sparre Andersen Research & Innovation Message-ID: <877g7en4gy.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk> References: <7f1c01c5-3563-4b94-9831-152dbbf2ecdc@googlegroups.com> <206rutb9pqak$.11a3dufqvmrm4.dlg@40tude.net> <5333169e$0$4219$9b4e6d93@newsspool2.arcor-online.net> <87bnwrn1m9.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 109.59.72.157.mobile.3.dk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: loke.gir.dk 1395993246 569 109.59.72.157 (28 Mar 2014 07:54:06 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@jacob-sparre.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:54:06 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:6HExddI63fb1kc96lODGp5ng4uE= Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:19019 Date: 2014-03-28T08:54:05+01:00 List-Id: Randy Brukardt wrote: > "Jacob Sparre Andersen" wrote in message > news:87bnwrn1m9.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk... > ... >> As there is no ACATS for Ada (2012) or Ada 2005, it is difficult for us >> customers to be sure of the state of the compilers we have to choose >> between. > > Huh? ACATS 3.0 for Ada 2005 has been available since 2008. Thanks for letting me know. I don't know how I have managed to miss it. I apologise for spreading incorrect information. :-( > An updated version 3.1 was issued in January, for use aftter April > 1st. It's not as complete as one might like, but it surely exists and > tests all of the really important new features of Ada 2005. Good to know. >> My three big wishes for Ada are that: >> >> 1) ACATS is updated to match the current Ada standard. > > ACATS 4.0 is under active development and should be released in the > next few months. I just released the first snapshot last week, see > http://www.ada-auth.org/acats.html. I'll take a look. >> 2) Any new standard is published _with_ a matching edition of ACATS. > > That's of course impractical as the same person (that is, me) is > responsible for both. Finishing up a standard is a full time > job. Doing the ACATS afterwards works well because it provides me > something to do in between major Standards work. Else I'd have to get > a real job and would most likely be unavailable for future work of any > kind. Good point. I appreciate your work on editing the standard. > The ARG has a discussion item on the agenda for the next meeting as to > whether we should require ACATS tests from ARG members, which would > certainly decrease the time lag. But it also has the possibility of > preventing a lot of work on the standard, by making it many times more > difficult for simpler issues. Several ARG members have indicated that > they have no interest in writing ACATS tests, so we would stand to > lose participation. (And we need more, not less participation!) Another good point. >> 3) The ARG establishes a process for expanding ACATS with >> user-provided examples. > > The ACATS has *always* taken user-submitted tests. There are examples > in the ACATS going back as far as 1990. You can find out about > submitting test on the user-submitted test page: > http://www.ada-auth.org/submit.html. Most the tests that I'm using to > create ACATS 4.0 are user-submitted. Ahh... Another bit of "secret" ACAA documentation. It looks like I should keep quiet about ACATS until I've expanded my study of the ada-auth.org web site. > As far as putting arbitrary user-provided stuff into the ACATS, that's > a bad idea because it misinterprets the point of the ACATS. I agree completely with you on that point. But even if the example the user starts out with isn't necessarily an ideal candidate for a formal conformity test, it might be possible to guide the author in that direction, such that the example can be transformed into a (number of) formal conformity test(s). > That said, it would be great if someone created a lightly-managed > repository of user-provided examples for Ada. I tried to create such a > reposistory back in the Ada 9x days, but no one other than me wanted > to contribute to it. Perhaps some other organization would have > better luck. Does that repository still exist? I think I know a number of Ada users, who would be happy to provide examples for such a repository. Greetings, Jacob (just another Ada user) -- »What fun is it being "cool" if you can't wear a sombrero?«