The ACVC is designed to demonstrate the conformity of an Ada
implementation with the standard. The ACVC is distributed as a
collection of test programs, support programs that facilitate processing
the tests, and an ACVC User's Guide that explains the criteria for
evaluating the results. The test suite is
available on-line
from the Ada Information Clearinghouse's (AdaIC's) Internet host.
For organizations requiring Ada 83 compiler testing, AJPO procedures allow
an AVF to perform testing with ACVC 1.11; no certificate will be issued,
but the AJPO will provide a letter affirming the successful testing by
an AVF.
For Ada 95 compiler testing, ACVC 2.1 is the only version for which testing
can lead to certification. However, testing with an expired version of the
Ada 95 ACVC (versions 2.0 and 2.0.1) may be tested by an AVF, and the AJPO
will issue a letter of affirmation as described above for Ada 83.
For Ada 95 compilers, compliance is measured only within the limits of
the collection of test programs contained in the ACVC for the core
language and specialized needs annexes. An Ada implementation passes a
given ACVC version if it processes each core language test of the customized
test suite in accordance with criteria for individual tests. For each
Specialized Needs Annex, the implementation chooses whether to attempt the
relevant tests. The behavior of the implementation with respect to the
Specialized Needs Annexes does not affect the issuance of a validation
certificate.
Each Ada 95 validation certificate is accompanied by a matrix displaying the
test result profiles for all the Specialized Needs Annexes.
The information contained in the matrix is reformatted
and provided in the Validated Compilers List (VCL) to allow easy access
for buyers and users who need to understand the levels of support provided
by these implementations.