Re: Ada source: Where?

Re: Ada source: Where?

[Gregory Aharonian]

>Could someone please tell me if there is anywhere where I can get hold of some
>source code for Ada? Are there any anonymous ftp sites?

   There are currently three DoD sponsored software reuse centers.  For more
information, keep a look out for their monthly FAQ postings on comp.lang.ada,
their periodic posting of annoucements of new Ada components on comp.lang.ada,
their recently released CD-ROMs of the entire contents of their repositories
(non-classified) for $49 (joining the ranks of many others making large
Internet collections available), their ads and marketing materials publicizing
their products and services, and (as mentioned in their FAQs), the openly
accessible anonymous ftp repository they have (with mail server access for
those without anonymous ftp access).

Greg Aharonian

(Look, one week after questions like these and no response from any of the
DoD reuse efforts, and the only response is sarcasm.  These people are
not qualified to operate software reuse centers, as demonstrated by their
continual inactions).


-- 
**************************************************************************
Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimiztion
P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178

Re: Ada source: Where?

[Peter Hermann]

In article <SRCTRAN.93Apr26210610@world.std.com> srctran@world.std.com (Gregory
 Aharonian) writes:
>DoD reuse efforts, and the only response is sarcasm.  These people are
>not qualified to operate software reuse centers, as demonstrated by their
>continual inactions).

This statement is not fair.

My personal experience is as follows:
First, I have the impression, that the people work pretty hard.
After a formal paper-mail exchange procedure, I finally got
a personal license to login into the "stars asset" repository.
To my surprise, I received the password in a long-distance
telephone call(!).
When applying telnet, a menu pops up which is of course
prohibitive for a transatlantic dialog.
So I ftp'd that address and this worked fine.
However, I first had to find out the appropriate directories
due to the lack of that information.
Astonishing is, that there are already more than 600 users,
the names of which are sometimes well known in the Ada scene.
Some minor deficiencies can be noted:
-- it is not easy to find out where to search for an overview
   and the appropriate files. E.g., I still did not find out,
   how to get a hierachical summary of topics.
   (Nobody has the time for investigation in a mess of directories).
-- software documentation is sometimes obtainable only 
   by paper mail. Some ftp'able ascii text would often do it.
-- for all software, which is unlimited for worldwide distribution,
   I see no need to prevent anonymous ftp
    as it is e.g. for ajpo.sei.cmu.edu.
-- There is no advertizing, which is crucial.
   In this point, I fully agree with Greg's neverending opinions.

All in all, these people do fine work.

Regards,

Peter Hermann

Re: Ada source: Where?

[Gregory Aharonian]

>All in all, these people do fine work.

    I won't deny that these people spend their time doing something,
but compared to software reuse efforts that have much, much less funding,
both commercial and federal, these efforts rate poorly in terms of
accessibility, marketing, and evangelizing.  It would be much more
efficient to replace the entire operation with one person and a CD-ROM
publishing system that could periodically mail out everything on one
CD-ROM.
   The point of these centers is not to promote reuse - but to promote
job preservation.  Given that that there are sections of USENET supported
by no paid personnel that result in much larger transfers of reusable
software than ASSET and the others ever will, why must the country waste
tax dollars on such an inefficient operation?

Greg
-- 
**************************************************************************
Greg Aharonian
Source Translation & Optimiztion
P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178

Re: Ada source: Where?

[Alex Blakemore]

>Could someone please tell me if there is anywhere where I can get hold of some
>source code for Ada? Are there any anonymous ftp sites?

for more info, see the comp.lang.ada FAQ on ftp site ajpo.sei.cmu.edu
(the ftp site for Ada info, but not a source archive except in special cases,
like some govt sponsored Ada interfaces)
-- 
Alex Blakemore       alex@cs.umd.edu        NeXT mail accepted
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"Without an engaged and motivated human being at the keyboard,
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