karl@grebyn.com (Karl Nyberg) (03/08/89)
[Ed - forwarded]
ADA 9X PROJECT
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
In order to expedite the Ada revision process, the Ada 9X Project Office
under sponsorship by the Ada Joint Program Office has tasked the Software
Engineering Institute to perform a number of focused short-term studies.
These studies will not replace the Ada 9X Project requirements analysis but
are intended to augment and facilitate future Ada 9X activities. One of
these studies deals with software reuse and Ada. The purpose is to
identify any deficiencies in Ada's support for reuse and provide
recommendations for possible revisions. The product of this effort will be
a report to be used to consider deficiencies during the Ada 9X revision
process. To help complete this study, comments on the following topics will
be helpful:
1. Language issues - this area shall focus on features of the Ada
language itself, both syntax and semantics. While generics will
be a major area of concern, this part of the study effort will
also look at other areas of the language that may affect reuse
such as types, packages, and exceptions.
2. Reuse-based development issues - effective reuse is based
largely on abstraction mechanisms. While some of these are
related to the language's syntax and semantics, others relate to
software development methodology. This part of the study shall
examine reuse-based methods both for the development and
application of reusable software. It will determine if changes
in the language would benefit particular reuse-based development
methods.
3. Implementation issues - Ada compiler implementations may pose
certain reuse-related problems. Because there is some loss in
efficiency due to the general nature of reusable software,
optimization features must minimize this loss. This part of the
study shall identify language requirements to ease the burden of
optimization. In addition, compilers must be capable of
handling complex generic structures. Together with the methods
area, this part of the study shall identify standard approaches
for reuse and methods for assessing performance of compilers for
these approaches.
The point of contact for this study is:
Mr. Sholom Cohen
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-5872
sgc@sei.cmu.edu
Please send your comments to Mr. Cohen by 25 March 1989. The report on
this topic will be made available to the public upon completion.
Ada 9X is an Ada community project. I appreciate your support and
consideration of this matter.
CHRIS ANDERSON
Ada 9X Project Manager
March 3, 1989
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