DC SIGAda
Program for Thursday, 9 January 2003

Our Next Meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, 9 January 2003 at 7:30 P.M.
Mr. Clyde Roby, Institute for Defense Analyses
will be speaking on
Evolving Ada Bindings and Ada APIs
at the DC SIGAda Venue
in McLean, Virginia

This will be a joint meeting between the DC and Baltimore SIGAda Chapters

Attention:

To Members and Friends of DC SIGAda

Next Meeting:

Thursday, 9 January 2003, 7:30 P.M. (Refreshments and Social at 7:00 P.M.) at the new MITRE2 Building in McLean, Virginia. DC SIGAda and Baltimore SIGAda will feature the following presentation:

Title:

Evolving Ada Bindings and Ada APIs

Abstract:

A workshop was held at SIGAda 2002 to address the management of Ada bindings and Application Program Interfaces (APIs). The purpose of that workshop was to identify a mechanism and begin to define a plan for the management of APIs for Ada. ISO/WG9 has requested that SIGAda and Ada-Europe propose such a mechanism for managing Ada bindings that are not covered via formal standards. Then ISO/WG9 can recommend these bindings as *defacto* standards, thus providing a process to register, and thus manage, bindings available to the Ada community without the formalism required by ISO. This workshop was well received at SIGAda 2002. There were many excellent suggestions made to improve a draft plan to manage Ada APIs.

Registered APIs are either Public or Private. Public APIs are those where a dedicated team assumes the responsibility for their maintenance and evolution. Changes are controlled via a concensus-based process. Private APIs are those developed and maintained by a third party. With permission from the developer, these APIs are kept on the API web page as a convenience to the user community. In both cases, Useful artifacts will be provided on the API web page, when available. Besides compilable APIs, there will also be other valuable artifacts such as examples, tutorials, known problems, lessons learned, etc.

A major topic of discussion at the workshop was the Management of both registered public and registered private APIs. There are many issues associated with each. It is proposed that a SIGAda API Working Group be responsible for this activity.

The workshop was extremely well received. The presentation on Thursday night will provide a summary of the workshop. Plans are already underway to implement this management plan. We are initially planning to use the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) as a test case for the procedures to manage Ada APIs. There will be other bindings of potential near term interest as well. Besides the CGI Bindings, other interfaces to which we have had recent presentations include: Windows Graphical User Interfaces and Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). This presentation could be valuable to all users of Ada bindings. Those interested in getting involved are especially welcome.

Presenter:

Clyde Roby received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from West Virginia University in 1972. He received his Master of Science degree in Information and Computer Science from Georgia Tech in 1979. He is currently a Research Staff Member with the Institute for Defense Analyses with interests in computer and network security, electronic commerce, and web technologies as well as software engineering. He has been involved with Ada for over two decades and with various working groups of SIGAda, including the Ada Bindings Working Group (ABWG) and the ASIS Working Group (ASISWG). He has been using World Wide Web technologies since the early 1990s to communicate effectively for international standardization efforts.

Clyde Roby
Institute for Defense Analyses
4850 Mark Center Drive
Alexandria, VA 22311
+1-703-845-6666
Email: ClydeRoby@acm.org

Venue/Directions

MITRE2
Room 1N100 A/B
The MITRE Corporation
7515 Colshire Drive
McLean, Virginia 22102-7508
Directions:

MITRE2 is on Colshire Drive just inside the beltway south of Route 123. Colshire Road is known as "Scotts Xing" on the North side of Route 123.

Colshire Road is located on Route 123, East of I-495 and West of the Dulles Access Highway.

Once on Colshire Road, MITRE2 is the building immediately in front of you. A tiny traffic circle is designed to take you to the front of MITRE2 and to MITRE1 (the Hayes Building). The directions below route you to the parking garage behind the MITRE2 Building. This is a logical left-hand turn at the traffic circle. After the turn, MITRE2 will be on your right.

From I-495 south of Route 123 (Dolley Madison Boulevard):

1. Take Exit 46B (McLean, Route 123);
2. Go North onto Route 123;
3. Turn right onto Colshire Drive (at second light);
4. Take third right off of the small traffic circle;
   (a logical left hand turn);
5. Proceed ~ 50 meters; Turn right into parking garage.
6. Visitor Parking is located on Levels 2 and 3
   (the walkway to the lobby is on Parking Level 2)
7. If door is locked, contact Security using phone by door
   (at entrance to MITRE2 from the Parking Garage)
8. Check in with Security at Security desk in lobby
   (You will need a photo ID)

From Dulles Access Toll Road or I-495 north of the Dulles Access Toll Road:

1. Take the Dulles Airport Access and Toll Road to Exit 19;
   (From I-495, this is labeled "To East I-66");
2. Take Exit 19A;
   (following signs to Route 123 South, Tysons Corner);
3. Bear right onto Route 123 (towards Tysons Corner)
4. Turn left onto Colshire Drive (at first light);
5. Take third right off of the small traffic circle;
   (a logical left hand turn);
6. Proceed ~ 50 meters; Turn right into parking garage.
7. Visitor Parking is located on Levels 2 and 3
   (the walkway to the lobby is on Parking Level 2)
8. If door is locked, contact Security using phone by door
   (at entrance to MITRE2 from the Parking Garage)
9. Check in with Security at Security desk in lobby
   (You will need a photo ID)

To obtain a map of MITRE2 Building and the MITRE Campus, visit =>
http://www.acm.org/sigada/locals/dc/Directions_MITRE2.html.

Please Put on Your Calendar

The next two meetings are:

DC SIGAda Home Page and Maillist

Please visit the DC SIGAda Web site at http://www.acm.org/sigada/locals/dc/ for additional information.

Please provide suggestions on the Web site and its contents. We are particularly interested in ways the DC SIGAda Home Page can serve you better.

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LISTSERV@ACM.Org

with the body containing:

subscribe SIGAda-DC Your Name

To be removed from the list, send an email request to:

LISTSERV@ACM.Org

with the body containing:

signoff SIGAda-DC

Business:

We will have light foods and refreshment at 7:00. The meeting begins at 7:30 pm.

Many thanks to all earlier participants, contributors, speakers, advisors, and friends, who are involved in helping to produce and attend the meetings.

Please forward this message to people who might be interested in attending. We welcome all new members as our attendance and interests grow.

Consider registering for inclusion on our e-mail list. Registration instructions are provided on the DC SIGAda Web site.

Jeff Castellow, Chair, DC SIGAda

updated 3 January 2003