GNAT Academic ProgramGNAT Academic Program

Robert Dewardewar@adacore.com

FOSDEMBrussels

Sunday, 26 Feb, 2006

Presentation cover page EU

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European Headquarters:

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AdaCore

Two companies, one in New York, one in ParisAbout 25 full time people in each

Produces the only complete Ada language implementation (Ada 83, Ada 95, and now Ada 2005), together with a suite of tools, and a full development environment.

A commercial productUsed in Avionics (Boeing 787, C130 …)Medical instrumentationSpace (Canadian space arm)Many other large critical projects

But entirely Free Software

Freely downloadable non-commercial versions availableGNAT public versionsFSF versions (included in many GNU/Linux distributions)(but, till GAP, not supported by AdaCore)

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GAP Overview

Perspective

What is the GNAT Academic Program (“GAP”)?

Challenges

Criteria for success

GAP membership

GAP shared resources

AdaCore academic partners

Coming events

Conclusions

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Perspective

Goals

• Promote awareness/usage of Ada in academia worldwide

• Create stronger links between Ada academic community and Ada industry

• Promote use and production of Free Software in universities

Achieving this goal involves several activities

• Creating a “can do” attitude among Ada proponents in academia

• Helping show Ada as an up-to-date language

• Making quality Ada tools available, with support, at no cost, to academia

• Encouraging sharing of Ada instructional material, software and materials

• Encouraging writing of Ada textbooks

• Promoting the linkage between software reliability and Ada

GAP was established to provide a focal point for these activities

Natural step for AdaCore

• Company origins are in academia GNAT project at NYU Ada Core Technologies (1994), ACT-Europe (1995)

Original purpose of GNAT was to have free compiler available for universities when Ada 95 became a standard

• Close academic ties (AdaCore/Europe and ENST Paris VI, ENST Bretagne)

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What is the GNAT Academic Program

Ada software development tools for academia

• An integrated binary distribution for Windows, Solaris & GNU/Linux comprising GNAT compiler (including support for Ada 2005) and toolset

GNAT Programming Studio (GPS) Integrated Development Environment

• HTML integrated documentation

• Source releases for GLADE, PolyORB, GtkAda, ASIS, AWS, XML/Ada and Florist

Support

• Online technical support, to professors, from AdaCore's team of Ada experts

Website for shared Ada teaching resources

• Submitted by/for GAP members

• Many kinds of resources Books and videos

Slide presentations

Articles and papers

Lecture notes

Programming exercises

Ada tools and libraries

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What are some challenges?

Current trends at universities

• Shrinking number of students concentrating in Computer Science

• Competing languages are not standing still Real-time Java, Java 5.0

Job-oriented focus of language selection

• “Chicken – egg” problem to get Ada on the radar screen

Lack of up-to-date textbooks

General lack of awareness of Ada in academia

• Ada proponents are often on the defensive to prove why Ada should be used

“One strike, you’re out” attitude

• Negative past Ada experiences linger and can be difficult to overcome

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Criteria for success

Activity from AdaCore

• GNAT Academic Edition

• GAP promotion through announcements, press releases, etc

Activity within GAP community

• Number / geographical diversity of GAP participants

• Number / nature of contributed (and used) resources

Activity from other Ada tool vendors

• Cooperation with others’ academic initiatives

Activity from the academic community

• Usage of Ada in university curricula Undergraduate courses

Graduate courses

Research

• Appearance of Ada at computer science education conferences SIGCSE

ITiCSE (Conf. on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education)

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Global distribution of GAP by country

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GAP members* (1)

Austria Institute of Computer Aided Automation - Vienna

Australia Murdoch University - Rockingham

Belgium University KU Leuven - Leuven

Bolivia Universidad Privada Boliviana - Cochabambia

Canada Brock University – Ontario Royal Military College - Ontario

France ENST - Paris INPG-ENSIMAG - Grenoble Paris XII - MIAGE - Créteil University of Orléans - Orléans University of Valenciennes - Valenciennes Université Pierre & Marie Curie - Paris

Germany University of Stuttgart - Stuttgart University of Duisburg-Essen - Duisburg University of Jena - Jena University of Bremen - Bremen

Ghana University of Cape Coast - Central Region

Italy University of Padua - Padua University of Verona - Verona

Latvia Transport & Telecommunication Institute - Riga

Poland Technical University of Lodz - Lodz Wroclaw University of Technology - Wroclaw Rzeszow University of Technology - Rzeszow University of Lodz - Lodz

Portugal University of Porto - Oporto

Russia Moscow State University - Moscow Tomsk State University - Tomsk

Spain University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - Las Palmas University Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) - Madrid University of Cantabria - Santander University of the Balearic Isles - Palma de Mallorca Technical University of Valencia (UPV) - Valencia University of Zaragoza - Zaragoza University of Vigo - Vigo University of the Basque Country

* Status as of Spring 2005

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GAP members* (2)

Sweden Märlardalen University - Västerås

Switzerland SUPSI - Manno Ecole d'Ingenieurs de Geneve - Geneva EIVD, Ecole d'Ingenieurs du Canton de Vaud – Yverdon les Bains

Ukraine VN Karazin Kharkiv National University - Kharkiv

United Kingdom Cranfield University - Swindon Aston University - Birmingham Basingstoke College of Technology - Basingstoke University of York - York

United States Vermont Technical College – Randolph, VT Roger Williams University - Bristol, RI Naval Postgraduate School - Monterey, CA US Military Academy - West Point, NY Colorado Technical University - Colorado Springs, CO Radford University - Radford, VA University of Northern Iowa - Cedar Falls, IA Rowan University - Glassboro, NJ Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA New York University - New York City, NY Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA Columbus State University - Columbus, GA US Air Force Academy - Colorado Springs, CO Oakland University - Rochester, MI University of Richmond - Richmond, VA Drexel University - Philadelphia, PA Indiana Institute of Technology - Fort Wayne, IN

* Status as of Spring 2005

Currently109 members!

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GAP Contributions site

Teaching materials

• Books M. Ben-Ari, Ada for Software Engineers

J. Miranda & E. Schonberg, GNAT and Ada 2005

J. Miranda & E. Schonberg, The GNU Ada Compiler

• Slides L. Pautet & F. Gasperoni, Ada 95 Distributed Systems Annex

Libraries

• MARTE OS: Real-Time Kernel (M. Rivas, M. Gonzalez Harbour)

• Win_IO: A Set of Packages for Simple Graphical Input and Output (M. Gonzalez Harbour)

Tools and utilities

• USAFA Utilities (M. Carlisle), including: AdaGIDE (student-oriented IDE)

RAPID (GUI builder)

A# (Ada port to .NET)

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Academic partners

“Loosely coupled” relationship with Ada tool vendors

• Praxis High Integrity Systems The SPARK language and toolset

• Artisan Software ARTiSAN Academic License Program

• IPL Academic Program

GAP/AdaCore serves as clearinghouse for requests from academia

• If GAP member requests information on any of the partners’ programs, we notify partner of the request

• GAP mailing lists and discussion groups

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Coming events

GAP / Ada 2005

• Most important features implemented now

• Full implementation by second quarter

GAP internship program

• Innovative way to match students with Ada jobs

• GNAT Tracker interface for GAP members and AdaCore customers Students can browse to see which companies have openings

Companies can browse to find available students

• Status Up and Running

Member spotlights

• Publicity for courses conducted by GAP members Videos, course materials

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Conclusions

Good progress so far

• AdaCore places high priority on GAP success Dedicated resources and personnel

• GAP membership growing and enthusiastic

• Other Ada tool vendors are supportive

Goal of strengthening linkage between Ada community and

academia has been largely achieved

How about seeing increase in Ada in teaching?

• Some reasons for optimism Ada 2005 as fresh new technology

Connection with High-Integrity (e.g. SPARK)

• Probably unrealistic to expect rapid spread, but slow/steady growth is possible

What next?

• AdaCore will continue to fully support and promote GAP

• “Keep those contributions rolling in”

• Keep spreading the news, Ada is alive and well