adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (Michele L. Kee) (05/23/91)
Ada9X UPDATE
MAY 1991
Draft Mapping Document Released
The draft Mapping Document was distributed in March for public review and
comment. It specifies the preliminary mappings of Ada 9X Requirements into
language solutions, and key features include enhancements to support
tasking (protected records), separate compilation (hierarchical libraries),
and object-oriented programming (single inheritance and polymorphism).
This first public discussion took place at the Ada 9X Mapping Workshop in
Orlando, Fla., 11-14 March -- which was a big success in obtaining valuable
feedback. Comments have been quite favorable, though much work still
remains to be done to simplify proposed mappings in order to facilitate use
and lessen the implementation burden. Expect the next version of the
Mapping Document in June to be streamlined while retaining important
functionality.
Requirements Rationale Document
The Ada 9X Requirements Document was released in December, and its
rationale document is now complete. The rationale features discussion
supporting the selection of Ada 9X requirements and an index tracing
revision requests submitted by the public to specific requirements. This
document is available electronically on the AJPO host and on the Ada 9X
Bulletin Board -- 1-800-Ada9X25 or 301/459-8939. Or contact the Ada 9X
Project Office at the address below to receive a hard copy.
Keeping Compiler Vendors in the Loop
In an attempt to keep validated Ada compiler vendors up to date on Ada 9X,
the Project Office is routinely sending Ada 9X documents to all vendors.
Furthermore, to solicit feedback, the Project Office issued a vendor survey
in February.
Several vendor workshops are also planned, including a workshop in
conjunction with TRI-Ada in San Jose, Cal., on 21 October. All vendors
will receive an invitation.
Ada in Academia
In order to provide researchers, instructors, and students with necessary
resources to study, teach, and use Ada, the Ada 9X Project Office is
exploring several options. The first is to provide free compilers on
widely used platforms based on existing Ada products. (No development from
scratch here!) Important issues concerning licensing, documentation,
maintenance, etc. still need to be worked out.
The second approach is to provide source code of government-owned tools for
computer-science researchers to use so they can extend the state-of-the-art
in tool technology, bindings to associated standards, distributed/parallel
processing, etc.
Expect more news on these topics in the near term. If you have suggestions
on these ideas or others to facilitate the use of Ada in academia, please
contact the Project Office.
Coordination with the International
Standards Organization (ISO)
In order to ensure that Ada retains its American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) and ISO status, a lot of international coordination is
taking place. The chairs of non-US delegations to ISO Working Group 9
(Ada) were invited by the Ada 9X Project Office to participate in the ANSI
Ada 9X canvass. Furthermore, a special ISO WG9 meeting featuring Ada 9X is
planned for September.
At the last ISO WG9 meeting, the Ada 9X Project Manager, and the Ada 9X
Mapping/Revision Team technical lead, Tucker Taft, were nominated for ISO
Ada 9X Standard editor and co-editor respectively. Every attempt is being
made to bring the two standardization processes closer together. This, of
course, assists users world-wide in ensuring Ada uniformity .
Coordination with the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
Ada is also a NIST standard, FIPS PUB 119. A Memorandum of Understanding
is being established between the Ada 9X Project Office and NIST to
facilitate the NIST adoption process for Ada 9X. NIST is the primary
maintainer of standards used by the U.S. Government.
Coordination with the Military
Ada is also a military standard. Coordination with DoD agencies and other
U.S. Government agencies interested in Ada is also taking place to
facilitate the final publication of Ada 9X in 1993 as a military standard.
The Ada 9X Project Manager meets regularly with the Ada 9X Government
Advisory Group to coordinate key aspects of the project.
Because recent DoD policy favors adoption of non-military standards in lieu
of the administrative overhead of maintaining military standards, it has
been agreed that when Ada 9X receives ISO standardization approval, the
military designation will be dropped.
The DoD-sponsored Ada Joint Program Office will still be the lead ANSI and
ISO agent for the standard however.
Open Door Policy
As always, please free to contact me if you have any concerns or comments
regarding the Ada 9X Project. I appreciate your support and interest.
To obtain Ada 9X documents or discuss the project, please contact me at the
Ada 9X Project Office:
Chris Anderson
Ada 9X Project Manager
WL/MNAG
Eglin AFB, FL 32542-5434
904/882-8264
e-mail: anderson@uv4.eglin.af.mil
FAX: 904/882-2095