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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.182.126.196 with SMTP id na4mr18435918obb.10.1412637485461; Mon, 06 Oct 2014 16:18:05 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.140.97.117 with SMTP id l108mr310727qge.3.1412637485435; Mon, 06 Oct 2014 16:18:05 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!peer03.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!uq10no5237894igb.0!news-out.google.com!q8ni45qal.1!nntp.google.com!dc16no1103260qab.1!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 16:18:05 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=50.111.113.147; posting-account=Ies7ywoAAACcdHZMiIRy0M84lcJvfxwg NNTP-Posting-Host: 50.111.113.147 References: User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Newcomers to comp.lang.ada: welcome and how did you end up here ? From: brbarkstrom@gmail.com Injection-Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 23:18:05 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Received-Bytes: 4489 X-Received-Body-CRC: 3274906735 Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:22157 Date: 2014-10-06T16:18:05-07:00 List-Id: On Monday, October 6, 2014 6:42:15 PM UTC-4, Simon Clubley wrote: > In recent weeks/months, there's been an influx of newcomers to > > comp.lang.ada. > > > > First, welcome to the world of Ada. I hope you find the language > > interesting and useful. > > > > Second, how did you end up here ? :-) > > > > The reason for asking is I'm wondering if there are some new Ada related > > activities online which have grabbed the attention of people and made > > them interested in learning Ada. > > > > There's historically been a major problem with promoting Ada and I'm > > now wondering if someone has succeeded in promoting Ada and we don't > > even know about it. :-) > > > > Thanks, > > > > Simon. > > > > -- > > Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP > > Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world I have used Ada for something like 20 years, but haven't usually been communicative about what I've done. I've got a background in Astronomy, large science team leadership on NASA big science projects, data preservation, and related issues. In this case, I needed to have a backup system for a Windows XP system on which I do most of my work and decided to renew an acquaintance with Unix (via Linux). I've got at least one paper published in a SIGADA conference (St. Petersburg, 2009 if I remember correctly). That dealt with design of multi-agent software. I've also had a paper in Earth Science Informatics relating to provenance (production history) tracking that embedded snippets of Ada as pseudocode. I sent out my notice that I've gotten the AdaCore GNAT GPL software to install and operate - apparently correctly - including the gps with graphics. I'm not sure I've gotten up promotional interest, but I'd be interested in starting a FOSS development group that promotes "citizen science", replication of data archives (to make it more likely that we'll preserve scientific data), and using Ada as an educational tool. I've even gotten my own Intel Atom barebones system on which I'm hoping to install Ubuntu, AdaCore GNAT GPL, and probably both AWS and PolyOrb to create standalone Linux Beowulf clusters that can engage in federated archive activities. I've also published a poster paper in a conference called "Concept Lattices and Their Applications 2013" and another at a conference called WMSCI that were describing a new approach to designing search engines to use a cooperative agent game approach that uses navigation in a data archive's structure to engage in a dialog between a user and the search engine. It's kind of the archive knows what's in its collections; the user knows when a response from the archive satisfies his or her information need. They navigate through links the search engine provides that give hints about what it perceives as potentially useful to the user. I won't bother with the math here - but there's some interesting stuff - including how to deal with concurrent threads of activities. If you're interested, you probably need Burns and Welling's book on Concurrent programming and the book by McCormick, Singhoff, and Hugues on Building Parallel, Embedded, and Real-Time Applications with Ada (Cambridge University Press, 2011). Hugues recommended I send out a note to this site. Bruce B.