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Brief 		Week Ending
July 19, 1996

ARA BEGINS PROGRAM TO MAKE Ada 95 THE MOST PORTABLE LANGUAGE

The Ada Resource Association (ARA) announced a program that will standardize how Ada is used and implemented with external interfaces. The ARA has formed the Ada Common Environment (ACE), which will coordinate with Ada compiler and tool vendors to ensure that all Ada implementations support standard external interfaces. The ARA intends to build on the new international standard for Ada 95 -- which provides many facilities for integrating multi-language software systems -- with the goal of making Ada the most portable language in software development.

The customer-focused program will enable third party vendors to build more powerful tools and supplemental systems with the assurance that all Ada systems can support them. The new standards will benefit Ada software products by increasing the range of platforms to which applications can be ported. The advantage to end users will be greater portability for their code from compiler to compiler and target to target.

For a complete copy of the ARA announcement, contact the AdaIC at 1/800-232-4211 or via the World Wide Web: /docs/flyers/araport.html

SOURCE:
Ada Resource Association Press Release. July 16, 1996.

GNAT COMPILER TO BE INCLUDED IN VERSION 2.0 OF COE

Version 2.0 of the Common Operating Environment (COE) will include support for an Ada 95 compiler, among other things, according to Rear Adm. John Gauss, deputy director of DISA for interoperability and engineering. DISA is including the Gnu Ada 95 Translator (commonly referred to as the GNAT Compiler) as shareware. "Ada 95 has lived up to the ads" on improvements over Ada 83, Gauss said, referring to the object-oriented version released last year. "We hope to explore the semantic similarities between Ada 95 and Java to see if we can cross-compile applications."

SOURCE:
Constance, Paul. "DISA plans to release latest version of COE this month," Government Computer News. June 24, 1996: 76.

THE USMC FINDS SUCCESS WITH Ada ... TWO MONTHS AHEAD OF TIME!

The AJPO mentored USMC Portable Recording System has been re-engineered in Ada 95 and field tested at White Sands, two months ahead of schedule. The previous PRS software was written in four languages and required transport of an entire shelter housing the proprietary hardware to the field for exercises.

SOURCE:
Ada Joint Program Office

NEW LEADERSHIP AT THE Ada UK

The Ada User Journal has recently seen some changes in its leadership with Bill Taylor assuming the post of Chairman and Jim Briggs the role of Editor of the Journal. Taylor will be replacing John Barnes who stood down after many years as Chairman and has accepted the post of Vice- Chairman. Briggs is replacing Dan Simpson, editor of the Journal for over five years, who will now carry on as a member of the Committee of Management and the Journal's Editorial Board.

Briggs aims to broaden the range of material published in the Journal by expanding the existing reviews and news sections and including commentary and opinion, "If you have something to say about Ada, the Ada User Journal is a suitable forum," he states.

SOURCE:
Ada User Journal. Vol. 17, No.2. June 1996.

Ada UK OFFERS Ada 95 SEMINAR

Ada UK is offering an Ada 95 seminar to Software Engineering teaching and research staff (at UK institutions) to discuss the benefits of Ada 95 as a teaching language. The seminar will be held September 16 & 17, 1996 in York, UK. For more information, contact:

Helen Byard, Ada UK Administrator P.O. Box 322, York, YO1 3GY Tel: 01904 412740, Fax: 01904 426702 E-mail: h.byard@bton.ac.uk

TWO FREE TRIPS TO TRI-Ada '96

SIGAda will be sending two members of SIGAda local chapters to Philadelphia, PA to attend TRI-Ada '96, December 3-7, 1996. Round trip travel to Philadelphia, room at the conference hotel, and full registration for the conference will be free. The two award winners will be selected by a random drawing in September, 1996 from candidates submitted by SIGAda local chapters. Only members of local chapters will be eligible to compete for the awards. Contact your local chapter for details. If you have further questions, contact Lewis Gray, SIGAda VC-Liaison, at adapros@aol.com.

SOURCE:
ACM Ada Letters. July/August 1996.

NEW VERSION OF LOVELACE Ada TUTORIAL AVAILABLE!

Version 5.4 of Lovelace, an Ada 95 tutorial, is now available. It includes some minor improvements and a bugfix for "Small" (the small adventure game). Check out the Lovelace tutorial at: http://www.dwheeler.com/lovelace/lovelace.htm For the curious ... Lovelace is now referenced in Gamelan in the section "Gamelan/Programming in Java/Documents about Java".

SOURCE:
David A. Wheeler 

PC Ada COMPILER JUST RELEASED!

DDC-I, Inc. has recently added to its DDC-I Ada Compiler Systems (DACS) by porting the DACS-80x86 to a PC/Windows NT platform. It can generate applications to run native on NT PC's or remotely on embedded 80x86 targets. DACS-PC for Windows NT is designed for large scale programming by supporting distributed development of Ada applications and by providing project-level controls to set tool options as well as to build and manage programs.

For more information, contact Jennifer Sanchez, DDC-I, Inc. at 602/275-7172 or check out the DDC-I web page at http://www.ddci.com.

SOURCE:
DDC-I, Inc. News Release: June 30, 1996.

Ada TESTING TOOL RELEASED

Rational Software Corporation recently introduced the next generation of TestMate Ada, a comprehensive tool that tests complex Ada systems. TestMate Ada version 2.0 supports all test activities in the testing cycle, including test planning, test design, test-case creation, execution, and results analysis. Third-party tools, such as capture/relay testing tools, can be used in conjunction with TestMate. For more information, contact Rational at: marketing @rational.com or Tel: 408/496-3600.

SOURCE:
"Rational Debuts Integration, Testing Tools," Object Magazine, Product Track. July 1996: 90.

The AdaIC's "Ada News Brief" is a compilation of summaries from Ada- related articles in trade magazines, newsletters and press releases. The AdaIC welcomes suggestions for and pointers to Ada-related articles.

Contact the AdaIC at:

Ada Information Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 1866
Falls-Church, VA 22041
1-800/232-4211 or 703/681-2466
adainfo@sw-eng.falls-church.va.us
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