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: backlog3.nntp.dca3.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!ottix-news.ottix.net!goblin3!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!reality.xs3.de!news.jacob-sparre.dk!loke.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Your wish list for Ada 202X Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 17:50:55 -0500 Organization: Jacob Sparre Andersen Research & Innovation Message-ID: 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: static-69-95-181-76.mad.choiceone.net X-Trace: loke.gir.dk 1395960655 5237 69.95.181.76 (27 Mar 2014 22:50:55 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@jacob-sparre.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 22:50:55 +0000 (UTC) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.6157 Xref: number.nntp.dca.giganews.com comp.lang.ada:185385 Date: 2014-03-27T17:50:55-05:00 List-Id: "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. 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. > 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. > 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. 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!) > 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. As far as putting arbitrary user-provided stuff into the ACATS, that's a bad idea because it misinterprets the point of the ACATS. The ACATS is intended to support FORMAL conformity assessment testing for Ada. It's NOT about finding bugs in compilers (although it certainly does do that). ACATS tests have to be portable to all reasonable implementations of Ada (or documented as to what they don't apply to), they have to include appropriate pass/fail information (and be self-checking if executable), and so on. ACATS tests get formal maintenance, with a defined dispute procedure and defined change mechanism. This could be overwhelmed if lower-quality tests flooded the test suite. 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. Randy Brukardt, ACAA Technical Agent.