Ada User Journal

Ada User Journal

[Marie-Louise.Kok]

Ada User Journal (Formerly: ADA User)

Editor: Dan Simpson

Ada User Journal is the quarterly journal of Ada (UK).  It aims to 
inform readers of recent developments in the Ada Language, the use 
of Ada and general Ada-related software engineering issues.

The journal contains refereed articles in Ada methodologies, case 
studies, surveys and tutorials on Ada-related topics and also features 
reports of conferences and workshops.

Subscription information: Ada User Journal (ISSN: 0268-652X) is published 
quarterly.  The subscription price for Volume 16, 1995, is NLG 296/$ 
164 postpaid.

If you would like to receive a FREE SAMPLE COPY of the journal, 
please e-mail your full postal mailing address to Marie-Louise.Kok@ios.nl

Ada User Journal

[Bo I. Sanden]

A reference I made in an earlier post (in the thread "Question about the
need for requeue ...") has prompted some email questions about the Ada
User Journal. Its existence seems to be a well guarded secret at least in
the US. 

It is a refereed journal, published by Ada Language UK Ltd. There are 4 
issues per year. They give the following address for mail orders and 
enquiries:

Ada Language UK Ltd.
PO Box 322
York, YO1 3HL
England

For quicker information you might try the Ada UK administrator H. Byard: 
h.byard@bton.ac.uk, Tel +44 1904 412740 Fax +44 1904 42670


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Bo Sanden					Author of:
Mail Stop 4A4				Software Systems Construction
George Mason University			    with examples in Ada
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444, USA		     Prentice-Hall 1994

        Tutorials on concurrent/real-time software design
                      at WAdaS and TRI-Ada
             http://www.isse.gmu.edu/faculty/bsanden
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Ada 2005?

[conradwt]

Hi, will Ada support keyword class for designing and implementing
classes?  For example, I'm forced to convert the following C++ class in
Ada as follows:

// C++

class A_Device {

public:

A_Device( char*, int, int );

char* Name( void );

int Major( void );

int Minor( void );

protected:

char* name;

int major;

int minor;
};

// Now, if I need to interact with the, this class I can do the
// following:

void main(void) {

A_Device aDevice = new A_Device( "Test", 1, 1 );

cout << aDevice.Name() << endl;
cout << aDevice.Major() << endl;
cout << aDevice.Minor() << endl;

}

// Ada

package Devices is

type Device is tagged private;

type Device_Type is access private;

function Create( Name : String,
Major : Integer,
Minor : Integer ) return Device_Type;

function Name( this : Device_Type ) return String;

function Major( this : Device_Type ) return Integer;

function Minor( this : Device_Type ) return Integer;

private

type Device is tagged

record

name : String(1..20);
major: Integer;
minor: Integer;

end record;

end Devices;

Now, interact with Ada package I would need to do the following:

procedure main

aDevice : Device_Type := Devices.Create( "Test", 1, 1 );

begin

Put_Line( Name( aDevice ) );
Put_Line( Major( aDevice ) );
Put_line( Minor( aDevice ) );

end main;

It seems that I'm trying to mimic the behavior of a OO language in a
procedural language when converting C++ to Ada.  Is this correct?  If
so, why doesn't Ada have OO contructs similar to C++,
Java, Eiffel, and Smalltalk to name a few where one passes a message to
an instance of a class?  Will this be something in Ada 2005 because I
have been able to find a good overview of the language to date?  Well,
I must go and thanks for any comments that you may send me.

-Conrad

Re: Ada 2005?

[christov]

conradwt@runbox.com wrote:
> Hi, will Ada support keyword class for designing and implementing
> classes?  For example, I'm forced to convert the following C++ class
in
> Ada as follows:

No, I do not think that Ada 2005 will support the keyword "class".  Ada
2005 will
add the "interface" keyword however.  (I haven't read up on it yet.)

[non-object-oriented code examples snipped]

Neither of your code examples really show much "object-orientation."
The best that you can say is that both examples show encapulation and
static function binding.  The C++ example is just a syntactic sugar
over what is easily acheivable in plain C.  The Ada example, while you
use tagged types, does not show any methods taking Classwide parameters
and thus use dynamic dispatch.

The syntax difference is just that, a syntax difference.  Looking at
the Ada Issues database it does look like Ada 2005 will support an
Object.Operation(...) style of notation.  It will provide a more
familiar syntax for C++/Java programmers who balk at
Package.Operation(Object,...).

>
> It seems that I'm trying to mimic the behavior of a OO language in a
> procedural language when converting C++ to Ada.  Is this correct?  If
> so, why doesn't Ada have OO contructs similar to C++,
> Java, Eiffel, and Smalltalk to name a few where one passes a message
to
> an instance of a class?  Will this be something in Ada 2005 because I
> have been able to find a good overview of the language to date?
Well,
> I must go and thanks for any comments that you may send me.

Ada95 is at least as object oriented as C++ in that it offers data
encapulation, type heirarchies, dynamic dispatch, abstract types and
methods, etc.  The syntax and procedure for their use are different.
Packages provide the mechanism for encapsulation and specialization in
Ada.  Tagged types and subprograms taking Type'Class arguments
(declared in the same package) provide the method for dynamic dispatch
and type inheiritance.

I also think that many Smalltalk adherants would be dismayed to find
you lumping that language in with C++ and Java.  Smalltalk (and
Objective C) are message passing, dynamically bound OO languages.  C++
is not a message passing language.

If you want a good book on Ada, I recommend  _Programming in Ada95, 2nd
edition_ by John Barnes.  There are also several excellent refferences
on Ada to be found for free from sites like http://www.adapower.com/ or
http://www.adaworld.com/.

Adacore has a short summary of Ada 2005 at
http://www.adacore.com/ada_2005.php.
If you want to go to the source then
http://www.ada-auth.org/arg-minutes.html shows the language design
process in all of its messy glory.  I really don't recommend it for
beginers though.  I try to steer clear myself. :-)

Cheers,
     Chris

Re: Ada 2005?

[Randy Brukardt]

"christov" <christov@mac.com> wrote in message
news:1103359624.475636.116510@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Adacore has a short summary of Ada 2005 at
> http://www.adacore.com/ada_2005.php.
> If you want to go to the source then
> http://www.ada-auth.org/arg-minutes.html shows the language design
> process in all of its messy glory.  I really don't recommend it for
> beginers though.  I try to steer clear myself. :-)

John Barnes is preparing a set of articles on Ada 2005 for the Ada User
Journal. I think they will be the definitive introduction to the changes in
Ada 2005. I hope that they'll be available on the web at some point.

                     Randy.

Re: Ada 2005?

[christov]

> John Barnes is preparing a set of articles on Ada 2005 for the Ada
User
> Journal. I think they will be the definitive introduction to the
changes in
> Ada 2005. I hope that they'll be available on the web at some point.

Awesome.

How do I subscribe to the "Ada User Journal"?  Is that a publication of
SIGAda or something else?

Thanks,
          Chris

Ada User Journal (was: Re: Ada 2005?)

[Dirk Craeynest]

In article <1103483481.620841.201320@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
christov <christov@mac.com> wrote:
>> John Barnes is preparing a set of articles on Ada 2005 for the Ada
>> User Journal. I think they will be the definitive introduction to
>> the changes in Ada 2005. I hope that they'll be available on the
>> web at some point.
>
>Awesome.
>
>How do I subscribe to the "Ada User Journal"?  Is that a publication
>of SIGAda or something else?

The "Ada User Journal" is the 3-monthly publication of Ada-Europe.
See <http://www.ada-europe.org/journal.html> for more information.

All members of Ada-Europe automatically have a subscription to
the Ada User Journal, i.e. all indirect members through an associate
national Ada organization and all direct members where no such
organization is active (yet).  If you're interested in membership,
please check <http://www.ada-europe.org/join.html>.

Dirk Craeynest - Ada User Journal Editorial Board
(Dirk.Craeynest@cs.kuleuven.ac.be for Ada-Belgium/Europe/WG9 mail)

*** 10th Intl.Conf.on Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe'2005
*** June 20-24, 2005 ***  York, UK  ***  http://www.ada-europe.org ***

Re: Ada User Journal

[Florian Weimer]

* Dirk Craeynest:

> All members of Ada-Europe automatically have a subscription to
> the Ada User Journal, i.e. all indirect members through an associate
> national Ada organization and all direct members where no such
> organization is active (yet).  If you're interested in membership,
> please check <http://www.ada-europe.org/join.html>.

It seems as if GI (Gesellschaft f�r Informatik) membership is a
requirement if you want to join Ada Europe as a German citizen.

Is there a workaround?  I don't particularly like the way GI opposes
an open society and free software.

Re: Ada User Journal

[Martin Krischik]

Florian Weimer wrote:

> * Dirk Craeynest:
> 
>> All members of Ada-Europe automatically have a subscription to
>> the Ada User Journal, i.e. all indirect members through an associate
>> national Ada organization and all direct members where no such
>> organization is active (yet).  If you're interested in membership,
>> please check <http://www.ada-europe.org/join.html>.
> 
> It seems as if GI (Gesellschaft fï¿œr Informatik) membership is a
> requirement if you want to join Ada Europe as a German citizen.

Don't know where you saw that. For me it looks like you have to be a member
of Ada-Deutschland (http://ada-deutschland.de). Have I missed something?
 
> Is there a workaround?  I don't particularly like the way GI opposes
> an open society and free software.

Well, I would not like to be a member of a of an organisation which oposes
an open society and free software, too.

With Regards

Martin

-- 
mailto://krischik@users.sourceforge.net
http://www.ada.krischik.com

Re: Ada User Journal

[Florian Weimer]

* Martin Krischik:

> Don't know where you saw that. For me it looks like you have to be a member
> of Ada-Deutschland (http://ada-deutschland.de). Have I missed something?

Ada Deutschland is just a working group within GI, AFAICS.

Re: Ada User Journal

[Thomas Hühn]

Florian Weimer wrote:

>>Don't know where you saw that. For me it looks like you have to be a member
>>of Ada-Deutschland (http://ada-deutschland.de). Have I missed something?
> 
> Ada Deutschland is just a working group within GI, AFAICS.

 From http://ada-deutschland.de/foerder/foerder.html:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Der F�rderverein Ada Deutschland e.V.

     * wurde am 15. Juli 1998 in Karlsruhe gegr�ndet,
     * verfolgt ausschlie�lich und unmittelbar gemeinn�tzige Zwecke und 
ist daher steuerbeg�nstigt,
     * unterst�tzt die Ziele der Fachgruppe 2.1.5 Ada der Gesellschaft 
f�r Informatik und arbeitet eng mit dieser zusammen,
     * steht allen Organisationen und Personen offen, die sich mit den 
Zielen des Vereins identifizieren,
     * finanziert sich bis auf weiteres nur durch Spenden und 
freiwillige Mitgliedsbeitr�ge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So it seems to be independent (especially money-wise), but does support 
the Ada subgroup of the GI (not necessarily the GI as a whole).

And actually the contact address given on the Ada-Europe website is not 
a GI-address, but an Aonix one. :-)

Thomas

Re: Ada User Journal

[Florian Weimer]

* Thomas H�hn:

> Florian Weimer wrote:
>
>>>Don't know where you saw that. For me it looks like you have to be a member
>>>of Ada-Deutschland (http://ada-deutschland.de). Have I missed something?
>> Ada Deutschland is just a working group within GI, AFAICS.
>
> From http://ada-deutschland.de/foerder/foerder.html:

> So it seems to be independent (especially money-wise), but does support 
> the Ada subgroup of the GI (not necessarily the GI as a whole).

Thanks.  I was misled because the only page that offered some kind of
membership I discovered on the site was a GI mailing list.