Ada FAQ: The Ada WWW Server
Magnus Kempe
Archive-name: computer-lang/Ada/www-server
Comp-lang-ada-archive-name: www-server
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 31 May 1996
Last-posted: 23 April 1996
Ada FAQ: The Home of the Brave Ada Programmers
(HBAP WWW Server)
In this FAQ you will find: an overview of the contents of the HBAP WWW
server (the Home of the Brave Ada Programmers), general information on
WWW, and references to some available WWW browsers.
Recent changes to this FAQ are listed in the first section after the table
of contents. This document is under explicit copyright.
Table of Contents:
* Introduction
* What's On The HBAP WWW Server?
* Cross-referencing
* Submission Directions
* Other Ada-Related WWW Servers
* What is WWW?
* Some WWW browsers
* Copying this FAQ
Recent changes to this FAQ
* 960531: more minor updates (new material, other Ada-related WWW
servers).
* 960123: minor updates and corrections.
* 950915: www-through-email service no longer available.
* 950621: update of the information on WWW browsers and email
access.
* 950420: minor extensions and revisions.
* 950124: approved for posting in *.answers.
* 950119: new material in the Home of the Brave Ada Programmers.
_________________________________________________________________
Introduction
The HBAP WWW Server is a hypertext information server to help
disseminate information about the Ada programming language. It is
alive and heavily used. The HBAP was created and is managed by Magnus
Kempe.
The URL of HBAP is
http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/
[don't forget the trailing '/'; and it's 'Ada', neither 'ADA' nor
'ada'].
The HBAP Ada WWW server keeps growing. All comments, ideas,
contributions, and requests for additions or corrections, are most
welcome. Email should be directed to the maintainer,
Magnus...@di.epfl.ch
HBAP is physically located at the Software Engineering Lab of the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The latest version of this FAQ is always accessible through WWW as
http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/FAQ/ada-www-server.html#title
Maintenance
This FAQ is maintained on an individual volunteer basis, by Magnus
Kempe (Magnus...@di.epfl.ch). [Note: This is done as a hobby, not
in my capacity as an employee at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology. --MK]
Information about this document
This file is posted monthly to comp.lang.ada, comp.answers, and
news.answers.
This document has a home on the HBAP, in hypertext format, URL
http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/FAQ/ada-www-server.html#title
It is available --as posted in *.answers-- on rtfm.mit.edu, which
archives all FAQ files posted to *.answers; see directory
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/computer-lang/Ada
The text-only version is also available in directory
ftp://lglftp.epfl.ch/pub/Ada/FAQ
Magnus Kempe maintains this document; it's a hobby, not a job.
Feedback (corrections, suggestions, ideas) about it is to be sent via
e-mail to Magnus...@di.epfl.ch
Thanks.
In all cases, the most up-to-date version of the FAQ is the version
maintained on the HBAP WWW Server. Please excuse any formatting
inconsistencies in the posted version of this document, as it is
automatically generated from the on-line version.
What's On The HBAP WWW Server?
The HBAP WWW Server provides Ada-related information and hypertext
access in areas including but not limited to:
* Reference Texts
+ hypertext versions of RM 95 and LRM 83
+ text of RM 95 and LRM 83
+ hypertext version of the Ada 95 Rationale
+ text of the Ada 83 Rationale
* Resources
+ standards
+ bindings
+ tools and components
+ software repositories
+ lists of books and articles, and bibliographies
+ online papers
+ research activities
+ access to the current list of validated compilers
+ cheap and free compilers
+ educational discounts
+ lists of compiler and tool vendors
+ CD-ROMs
* Intellectual Ammunition
+ some facts about the language
+ Ada 9X, and state of revision process (the name is Ada 95)
+ moving from C/C++ to Ada
+ Ada in academia (e.g. who teaches Ada, textbooks, educational
discounts)
+ Ada in industry (e.g. success stories)
+ special interest groups
+ debunking myths
* Introductory Material
+ design goals and summary of the language
+ an excellent free online tutorial on Ada 95 (Lovelace)
+ an annotated list of textbooks
+ information about free compilers
* Frequently Asked Questions--with Answers
+ comp.lang.ada
+ Programming with Ada
+ Learning Ada
+ Ada WWW
+ PAL
+ Team-Ada
* FTP Sites --with Mirrors-- and other Ada-related WWW Servers
* Ada-related Conferences, News and Events
+ conferences, workshops (calls for papers, programs)
+ calendar
+ press releases
+ technical and other news
* Historical Notes on Ada
+ the Lady and the programming language
* Ada Picture Gallery
For instance, you will find the list of schools using Ada in CS1 or
CS2, articles on commercial success stories, information about
software components, as well as hypertext versions of the Ada
reference manual (both 83 and draft 9X).
Cross-referencing
The main entry point to the HBAP WWW Server is the page "Home of the
Brave Ada Programmers", located at URL
Don't forget the trailing slash!
If you reference the HBAP WWW Server in a document, you should use the
name "Home of the Brave Ada Programmers" -- or possibly "HBAP" or "The
HBAP WWW Server".
The URL and names indicated above are the reference you should HREF if
you want to keep a pointer to this page (other references are subject
to change anytime--well, it's not quite that drastic, but they're not
cast in electronic stone). For instance, using Netscape, you can use
the Add Bookmark option of the Bookmarks menu to record a URL when you
are visiting it.
Submission Directions
The HBAP WWW Server is a service provided as a means of disseminating
information on Ada. Submittals are accepted by e-mail in text form,
HTML markup, or as references to other locations containing
information related to Ada. For other formats, please send a proposal
first and we'll work it out.
Upload Directions
There is no "upload" directory for security reasons. To submit a
document please send an e-mail message which contains a description of
the contents of the document and the document as an attachment. If you
send the document in a compressed or translated form, please indicate
how to uncompress. If your document is very large--say 1 MB--I'll tell
you how to upload it through FTP.
Send all correspondence to: Magnus...@di.epfl.ch
Description of Contents
Please make sure that the nature of the document is clear (title,
author, contact information, date).
Copyright Restrictions
If the document has been copyrighted for publication elsewhere,
provide information from the copyright holder that permission is
granted to publish the document in this form (and DO provide a
copyright notice). If it hasn't been published elsewhere, put an
explicit copyright statement on it to protect your intellectual
property.
THANK YOU!
Other Ada-Related WWW Servers
After the creation of HBAP, a number of personal and institutional
efforts have also created Ada-oriented WWW servers. Here is a
sampling:
ACM SIGAda
URL http://www.acm.org/sigada/
ACM SIGAda -- the ACM Special Interest Group on the Ada
programming language -- has its own home page, where you can
find the latest information about ACM SIGAda's activities.
The SIGAda home page points to information on SIGAda, including
the many different Working Groups within SIGAda. There you'll
find info on topics such as bindings, software standards,
reuse, performance issues, and Artificial Intelligance and Ada
just to name a few. There is also information on the many local
SIGAda organizations found world wide. Additionally, there are
links from the SIGAda page to many Ada resources found around
the internet.
Ada Information Clearinghouse
The AdaIC is sponsored by the US DoD through the AJPO. It has a
mission, a server, and a newsletter, and it publishes many
reports and reference documents (online and on paper).
PAL
URL http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/languages/ada/pal.html
The Public Ada Library at WUArchive, USA.
European mirror of PAL
URL http://web.cnam.fr/Languages/Ada/PAL/
Located at Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris
(CNAM).
Ada-Belgium
URL http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~dirk/ada-belgium/
Ada-Belgium organizes an annual seminar, an annual Ada Tools
Exhibition, small workshops, publishes 3 issues of its
newsletter a year, and has two e-mail lists for the Ada
community in Belgium. On demand, training seminars can be
organized. They also manage an Ada archive (with material from
the PAL, see below).
SEI
URL http://www.sei.cmu.edu/FrontDoor.html
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded
research and development center operated since 1984 by Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
The SEI is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense through
the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The SEI objective
is to provide leadership in software engineering and in the
transition of new software engineering technology into
practice.
(This site has a lot of material about Software Engineering in
general, and some about Ada in particular.)
What Is WWW?
The World Wide Web (WWW) is what Fortune Magazine ("The Internet And
Your Business," March 7, 1994, pp. 86-96) called the "killer
application" that will make the Internet indispensable to anyone in
the 1990's just as the spreadsheet did for the PC in the 1980's.
WWW is like a distributed hypermedia encyclopedia. It is a database
and communications protocol, it is multimedia, distributed, and
hypertext. Clicking on links takes the user from document to document,
from site to site, world-wide. WWW was originally developed by
researchers at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
The basic concepts used in WWW are hypertext--text that is not
constrained to be linear--and multimedia--information that is not
constrained to be text. With hypertext, documents can contain links to
other documents, or another reference within the same document. With
multimedia, documents can contain objects that are not necessarily
text--sounds, movies, and interactive sessions are all possible.
Now everyone knows (or pretends to know) what the Internet and WWW
are; indeed, as early as in 1994, the WWW attracted attention from
* Business Week (Nov 14, 1994, pp. 80-88; March 28, 1994, pp. 170
and 180),
* Byte ("Data Highway," March 1994; "The Web Means Business",
November 1994, pp. 26-27),
* Scientific American ("Wire Pirates," March 1994),
* New Media (November 1994),
* PC Magazine (October 11, 1994),
* Conde Nast Traveller (11/94, pp. 37-49, 58),
* Money (November 1994, p. 125),
* Unix Review (October 1994),
* Advanced Systems ("Doing Business on the Internet", November 1994,
pp. 50-55),
* German Der Spiegel (March 1994), and
* British PC Week (March 15, 1994).
For more information, read the WWW FAQ, available in hypertext at
http://www.boutell.com/faq/www_faq.html and in the FTP archive of
news.answers: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/faq
Some WWW Browsers
Commercial and free WWW browsers are available for all major platforms
(Unix, Macintosh, Windows, DOS, VMS, VM, NeXTstep...). New versions
become available at least twice a year (for each browser), and even
new browsers regularly make their appearance.
A list of browsers is available on the Web as
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html and used to be regarded
as an authoritative list.
Here is some quick reference information for a few free browsers:
Mosaic (the catalyst of the WWW) is the name of an application which
lets users navigate through the Internet and browse through the Web;
this software --distributed free to anyone who requests it and
available for Unix workstations, Macintosh systems, and MS Windows--
is developed and maintained at NCSA, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The
Mosaic binaries are FTP-able from ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic (Unix
and VMS), ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mac/Mosaic and
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/PC/Mosaic
Lynx is a full screen browser for vt100 terminals; precompiled
binaries are available from ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/lynx
Cello is a client for PCs running Windows, available from
ftp://fatty.law.cornell.edu/pub/LII/Cello
W3 is an Emacs subsystem, available from
ftp://moose.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3
_________________________________________________________________
Copying this FAQ
This FAQ is Copyright © 1994-1996 by Magnus Kempe. It may be freely
redistributed --as posted by the copyright holder in comp.lang.ada--
in other forums than Usenet News as long as it is completely
unmodified and that no attempt is made to restrict any recipient from
redistributing it on the same terms. It may not be sold or
incorporated into commercial documents without the explicit written
permission of the copyright holder.
Permission is granted for this document to be made available under the
same conditions for file transfer from sites offering unrestricted
file transfer on the Internet and from Forums on e.g. Compuserve and
Bix.
This document is provided as is, without any warranty.
_________________________________________________________________
Enjoy.
Magnus Kempe -- Magnus...@di.epfl.ch
"I know not what course others may take, but as for me,
Give me Liberty... or Give me Death!"
-- Patrick Henry, Son of Thunder