[comp.sources.d] Ada tools available for test use

hmj@tut.UUCP (06/10/87)

Project ASENTO (Ada Software ENgineering TOols) at Tampere
University of Technology produced two Ada programs, Yacca and Adaface.
If you'd like to get these programs for educational or research use
and act as a test site of these programs, read further.
Costs: costs of media.  Too large to send by e-mail.

Yacca is a yacc generator written in Ada and producing Ada code.
The input syntax is same as of the original yacc with some extra key words.
Action parts are naturally in Ada.  To send you a copy of yacca,
we have to get a copy of the signature page of your Software Agreement
with AT & T.

Adaface,  Ada interface, is a tiny Ada interpreter (about Pascal-level).
The idea is to connect the interpreter with your application by an interface
generator. The input of the generator is visible parts of the application's
specifications. All visible subprograms and variables can be accessed by
the interpreter except ones having limited types as parameters.
NOTE: The product is NOT an Ada interpreter.  It is designed to be a
command interpreter and many features of Ada are missing.
BUT: you can run simplified Ada code (almost everything except packages,
generics and tasking) declare variables, procedures and functions,
even overload subprograms.

The supposed use of the tool is to ease making interfaces for Ada programs
(windowing interface as well as normal line-oriented one is supported) and
to make a testing interface for modules quickly.  The interfaces supported
includes journal files (all input go there), possibility to recover aborted
execution using journal files, a log file of the session or parts of it and
possibility to run command files.  Also an initializing file exists, so
procedures can be loaded in automatically.  When procedures work as supposed
(their functions may be difficult to predestinate for interactive
applications), they can be compiled in to speed up the application.

Third tool, Adator, is an experimental one. It uses the two previous ones and
acts as a testing environment for them.  Adator is an Ada syntax editor.
The source code is kept in buffers, and it (or parts of it) can be checked
to find out syntax errors. If a syntax error is found, cursor is set
to the first erroneous point.

If you are interested on any of above,  contact me. The English
documentation will never be as detailed as the Finnish one, but it is enough
to use the programs (I hope).  Anyway, comments in the source code are all
in English.
-- 
Hannu-Matti Jarvinen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Project EAST - European Advanced Software Technology
hmj@tut.fi, hmj@tut.uucp, hmj@tut.funet (tut.ARPA is not the same computer).