Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Ludovic Brenta]

Hi all

it's that time of the year again!

The Ada day at FOSDEM 2006 was successful, how about doing something
similar in 2007 again?  In particular, I think an introduction to Ada
2005 would be a good idea.

http://www.fosdem.org is down due to hardware failure (this happened to
the Ada-France server this year, too), but the mailing list still
exists.  No planning seems to have taken place yet, so if we want to
reserve a room for our presentations, now is a good time.  I assume
that
FOSDEM 2007 is still planned for late February 2007, presumably 24-25
February. As usual, this will be in Brussels, Belgium.

I could redo my classic "Ada in Debian" speech, but I do not have much
more to say than I did last year, so I will only speak if there is
popular demand for it.  OTOH, Debian is due to be released on Dec 4, so
by February 2007 I'll be in the planning phase for Etch+1, which might
lead to interesting discussions.

Let's assume that the traditional, slot-based schedule will be
applicable this year again, i.e. there are six one-hour slots in a day,
and we need to allow for 10 minutes of transition between slots.  So,
all presentations should be formatted to a 50-minute schedule including
questions and answers.  The slots are:

10:00 - 11:00
11:00 - 12:00
12:00 - 13:00
(lunch break 13:00 - 14:00)
14:00 - 15:00
15:00 - 16:00
16:00 - 17:00

In 2006, the "Ada day" was on Sunday.  In 2007, if we're early enough
we
might get to choose between Saturday and Sunday, or even get a room for
the whole two days!  (but this requires more speakers).

Besides speeches, we could also have:

- programming tutorials (e.g. have fun with distributed systems)
- a programming contest ("obfuscated Ada", perhaps? :) )
- hands-on demonstrations
- unconstrained questions and answers

At this point, I would like to have a "gut feeling" on whether or not
an
"Ada day at FOSDEM" is feasible or desirable.  This "gut feeling"
should
be sufficient for me to ask for a developer's room for 1/2 day, 1 day,
3/2 days, or 2 days.  It would be nice to have that by the end of
October.  Later on we can agree on a precise schedule, which must be
finalised by mid-November.

If you would like to speak at FOSDEM, attend, or if you simply would
like to know what's in the works, please subscribe to the AdaFOSDEM
mailing list:

http://listserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=adafosdem&A=1

This list is not moderated, but only subscribers can post and browse
the archives.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

Ludovic Brenta wrote:
> - a programming contest ("obfuscated Ada", perhaps? :) )

No, no, a trillion times no!

Obfuscation and Ada are antithetical. Those who think otherwise should 
have their compilers taken away.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Son of a window-dresser."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
12

Re: Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Ludovic Brenta]

Jeffrey R. Carter writes:
> Ludovic Brenta wrote:
>> - a programming contest ("obfuscated Ada", perhaps? :) )
>
> No, no, a trillion times no!
>
> Obfuscation and Ada are antithetical. Those who think otherwise should
> have their compilers taken away.

You've just been caught on Candid Camera.

(hint: hello? it's me!)

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Björn Persson]

Ludovic Brenta wrote:
> Jeffrey R. Carter writes:
>> Ludovic Brenta wrote:
>>> - a programming contest ("obfuscated Ada", perhaps? :) )
>> No, no, a trillion times no!
>>
>> Obfuscation and Ada are antithetical. Those who think otherwise should
>> have their compilers taken away.
> 
> You've just been caught on Candid Camera.
> 
> (hint: hello? it's me!)

If you want ideas, how about a contest for most useful new Ada library? 
I suppose additions to existing libraries could also be allowed. You 
could require that all entries be released under free licenses, and rate 
them in areas like code clarity, documentation and how needed they were.

Just a thought that crossed my mind.

-- 
Bj�rn Persson                              PGP key A88682FD
                    omb jor ers @sv ge.
                    r o.b n.p son eri nu

Re: Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Ludovic Brenta]

Björn Persson writes:
> If you want ideas, how about a contest for most useful new Ada
> library? I suppose additions to existing libraries could also be
> allowed. You could require that all entries be released under free
> licenses,

Of course, this would be a requirement for any contribution to the
Free and Open-Source Developer's European Meeting (FOSDEM) :)

> and rate them in areas like code clarity, documentation and
> how needed they were.

Yes, these are nice criteria, but they reflect code quality and not
usefulness.

Your idea of "most useful library" is quite good.  How about this: the
c.l.a. people submit ideas for a small library, or addition to an
existing library, and during FOSDEM we choose the best implementation
and present an award?

Just another idea that crossed my mind :)

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Björn Persson]

Ludovic Brenta wrote:
> Björn Persson writes:
>> and rate them in areas like code clarity, documentation and
>> how needed they were.
> 
> Yes, these are nice criteria, but they reflect code quality and not
> usefulness.

Perhaps, but I think good documentation makes a library more useful.

> Your idea of "most useful library" is quite good.  How about this: the
> c.l.a. people submit ideas for a small library, or addition to an
> existing library, and during FOSDEM we choose the best implementation
> and present an award?

Do you mean you'd select one or a few of the submitted ideas? Then it's 
starting to sound like two contests – first a contest for the best idea 
for a library and then a contest for the best implementation. But maybe 
it would be good to have a defined task like that. Otherwise the entries 
might be so different that they'd be difficult to compare.

-- 
Björn Persson                              PGP key A88682FD
                    omb jor ers @sv ge.
                    r o.b n.p son eri nu

Re: Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Ludovic Brenta]

Björn Persson <spam-away@nowhere.nil> writes:
>> Yes, these are nice criteria, but they reflect code quality and not
>> usefulness.
>
> Perhaps, but I think good documentation makes a library more useful.

Yes indeed.  But quality (of the program and documentation) alone does
guarantee usefulness.  I could write a beautiful, well-documented but
useless program.

>> Your idea of "most useful library" is quite good.  How about this: the
>> c.l.a. people submit ideas for a small library, or addition to an
>> existing library, and during FOSDEM we choose the best implementation
>> and present an award?
>
> Do you mean you'd select one or a few of the submitted ideas? Then
> it's starting to sound like two contests – first a contest for the
> best idea for a library and then a contest for the best
> implementation. But maybe it would be good to have a defined task like
> that. Otherwise the entries might be so different that they'd be
> difficult to compare.

Yes.  I was also keeping in mind that the "contest" would have to fit
within severe space and time constraints, so maybe it would be best to
only hold an award ceremony at FOSDEM.  Perhaps we could allow the
contestants to present their program.  Or just the winner, if the
program is large and non-trivial.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: Ada at FOSDEM 2007... call for participants

[Ludovic Brenta]

The dates for FOSDEM 2007 have just been announced on
http://www.fosdem.org. The site is now back up online. As I suspected
the dates are 24-25 February 2007 in Brussels, Belgium.

Two people have already offered presentations; we need more! Please
subscribe to the AdaFOSDEM mailing list [1] if you are interested.

[1] http://listserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=adafosdem&A=1

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.