If you're looking for FREE Ada source code, check out the Public Ada Library (PAL). Since 1984, the PAL, once called the Ada Software Repository (ASR), has been a major source of publicly available Ada code. The Library provides more than 3 billion bytes of software, courseware, and documentation on Ada.

The PAL exists to make Ada-oriented material that has been released to the public readily available to those who seek it. It exists also to support educators and the user community by providing a mechanism for the exchange of ideas and materials and a resource for use in their activities.

The PAL is a compilation of ten separate collections of Ada resources from:

• Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC)
  (PAL's languages/ada/ajpo tree)
• Software Engineering Institute (SEI)
  (PAL's languages/ada/sei tree)
• Ada Software Repository [no longer maintained]
  (PAL's languages/ada/asr tree)
• George Washington University
  (PAL's languages/ada/compiler/adaed/gwu and languages/ada/compiler/ez2load trees)
• New York University
  (PAL's languages/ada/compiler/gnat/distrib tree)
• Idaho National Engineering Lab (INEL)
  (PAL's languages/ada/sage tree)
• University of Alabama
  (PAL's languages/ada/swtools/drgen tree)
• Directories maintained by the PAL manager
  (PAL's languages/ada/ tree)

Originally, the ASR was stored on the SIMTEL20 host computer at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Over the Internet, the ASR's resources were available for downloading directly from SIMTEL20, from ASR mirror sites, and via AdaNet.

By 1993, the SIMTEL20 host was becoming too old and too costly to maintain. Rick Conn, the ASR Manager, "was faced with the choice of stopping my activities or going on under a different environment." He chose to proceed, establishing a new Ada repository to be accessed via the Internet, called the Public Ada Library, at Washington University in St. Louis. The University's host (wuarchive.wustl.edu), previously a mirror site for the ASR, became the principal site for the PAL in late June.

Accessing the PAL

The PAL can be accessed by a wide variety of mechanisms. These mechanisms include, but are not limited to, the following:

World Wide Web (WWW)

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/languages/ada/pal.html
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/ada/pal.html
http://web.cnam.fr/Languages/Ada/PAL/

FTP

ftp://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/public/PAL/
ftp wuarchive.wustl.edu
ftp ftp.cdrom.com

Gopher

gopher wuarchive.wustl.edu

CD-ROM

The 2-disk "Ada CD-ROM" set is available from Walnut Creek CD-ROM for $39.95; for details, contact:

Walnut Creek CD-ROM
1547 Palos Verdes Mall, Suite 260
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Phone: 510/674-0783
Fax: 510/674-0821
Email: info@cdrom.com

PAL Documentation

PAL users will find helpful documentation in the languages/ada/userdocs subdirectory. The documents available include:

• The PAL Catalog (including table of contents and index)
• The PAL Taxonomy
• The PAL FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
• PAL Email List Archives
• Information on Using the Internet

The PAL is, overall, an outstanding collection of material. However, as with any collection, there are items that are of better quality than others and items that are of more use than others. The user is responsible for choosing resources wisely. To aid the user in his choice, the PAL’s manager has provided a REVIEW CODE field to all the items in the Master Index (Chapter 1 of the Master Index gives the keys for this field: "CS" means Compiled Successfully, "ES" means Executed Successfully, "NR" means Not Rated). Comment (CMM) Files, which inform users of successes and problems, are also provided.

For additional information, access the directory languages/ada/how2use

There are several electronic information distribution lists to provide support for users of the PAL:

PAL-ANNOUNCE
for users of the Public Ada Library; announcement-only (will not accept posts for redistribution). Used to distribute announcements and information on additions and changes to the PAL.

WUARCHIVE-ANNOUNCE
for users of WUARCHIVE; announcement-only (will not accept posts for redistribution. Used to distribute announcements and information on the status and planned down-times of WUARCHIVE.

ADA-TRAIN
for users involved in Ada education and training; a discussion list (will accept posts for redistribution). Provides a forum for communication among educators at high schools, colleges, universities, commercial training vendors, and corporate and government organizations.

To subscribe to any one of these listservs, send an email message to: listserv@wunet.wustl.edu

Leave the subject line blank and place the following line in the body of the message: subscribe list name (pal-announce/wuarchive-announce/ada-train)

Do not use a signature file to end your message.

Further help may be available from the PAL’s manager, Richard Conn, whose email address is conn@wuarchive.wustl.edu.