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"Carlisle, Martin, Dr, DFCS" <[log in to unmask]>
Mon, 28 Aug 2000 08:01:57 -0600
text/plain (150 lines)
Let me begin by apologizing for the omission of AdaPower from the reusable
components article.  Rest assured this was not intended as a deliberate
omission, and, in retrospect, it is an embarrassing oversight.  I did review
the article, and I suggested changing/deleting some links I knew to be
incorrect, but didn't go to the effort of checking all of them.  Trudy
Levine has been a regular contributor of a reusable software components
article for some time, and I am sure would welcome any suggestions of sites
to pass along to Ada Letters readers.

Additionally, Pat Rogers (our Technical Editor) and I do occasionally post
to team-ada, comp.lang.ada, etc. requesting submissions (I don't think those
posts have ever resulted in a submission, but I might be mistaken).  Ada
Letters is published 4 times a year.  I took over as editor this year, and
have been trying to get the publication back on schedule.  The June issue
was sent to ACM in June, and the September issue will be sent to ACM in
September.

Right now I am holding publication of this issue awaiting what I believe
will be a very interesting article on the use of Ada to program Lego
Mindstorms robots in a freshman course.  If you (or anyone else) thinks they
could put together a submission in the next couple of weeks, we'll certainly
consider it.  I would think an article describing what resources are
available at AdaPower would be of interest to our readers.

After this, the December issue will be the proceedings of SIGAda 2000 (which
should put me back on schedule), and then we'll return to the regular
deadlines you see printed on p. 3 of Ada Letters (31 Dec, 31 March, 30 June,
30 Sept).  If, however, you have something of timely interest, you can
always contact me directly about when I'm actually going to prepare the
printer ready document.

Submissions should be submitted electronically to [log in to unmask] in
MS-Word (preferred), Adobe Acrobat, or postscript, formatted for 8.5"x11"
paper (US Letter) with 1" margins on each side and no page numbers (I add
them).  As noted on p. 5, you can send info on reusable components to Trudy
Levine, [log in to unmask], for inclusion in the next column.

Since I'm a professor, I'm not always up on industry developments, and I no
longer track comp.lang.ada.  I do subscribe to team-ada.  So, I certainly
appreciate any help and insights I get from others.

--Martin

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Martin C. Carlisle, PhD
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
United States Air Force Academy
Managing Editor, ACM SIGAda Ada Letters

-----Original Message-----
From: David Botton [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2000 11:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ada Letters Dead Lines (was Re: aJile's Java chip (was Re:


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Feldman" <[log in to unmask]>

> But it's
> just unrealistic to expect everyone to know about everything,

True, but not unrealistic to expect that SigAda takes an active leadership
role in publicising the available resource that do exist.

I'd be happy to contribute regular information on what is going on in the
Ada "Net" world to AdaLetters and as I said in the original e-mail if some
dead line notices would be placed on Team-Ada, other articles.

> and not too quick to complain about "balkanization". We cannot
> have it both ways: if we are going to be decentralized,

Just the opposite, we should be centralizing and SigAda should be the focus
of it.

> I don't believe anyone is trying to freeze out AdaPower

I don't believe there is or has been a "freeze out", just as you said, a
lack of "focus" on the big picture.

> there are people in SIGAda who might not hang out
> on the net and do not know about you.

That is exactly the point, SigAda is for many the only source of news and
information and they are missing out! If a list is published in Ada Letters
of "reuse sources" and it misses almost all of the active Ada projects (not
just my own) then Ada Letters is hurting instead of helping since the list
makes things seem a little pathetic.

> would help if you tried to suggest a mechanism for this to happen.
> SIGAda is not a "thing", it's just a bunch of people.

Not only do I not see it as a thing, I see my self as part of it! The
mechanism I suggested is to both make clear avenues for participation open,
do a little recruiting, and making the new feel welcome by the old.

> Much of the discussion you desire goes on at the annual conference.

Was there.

> BTW - SIGAda has four sources of income:

Money is not the problem, solution, or the issue.

> Well, the organization (officers, WGs) is laid out on the
> SIGAda website,

Just names of people no information on the how's.

> I think it would be a good idea to post the SIG by-laws on the
> web. I'll pass this idea on, or you can do it.

First I need to know how to pass it on :-) Get the point.

I am more in the dark now, I would have thought Team-Ada as the place to
make such suggestions (and in fact the reason I raised the issues here), but
your many comments and this suggestion seem to indicate that it is not read
by the decission makers of SigAda ( so what list is? )

> None of this is up on the SigAda web site.
>
> Are you sure? I just checked the site and found quite a lot of
> info. Obviously there is never enough info, and there are always
> good ideas for more, but what's there is a pretty good start
> and saying "none" is going too far.

No, none is accurate. The question was on the function (the How's) of SigAda
and there is no answers to the How's, like how to contribute, how to vote,
how to find out what is going one, etc.

For example, In my interest to get more involved in SigAda I sat in on every
meeting I heard of for SigAda. There were many issues that were left open
that were later closed. Where, when, how? I see the results, but not the
process.

There is no clear picture of how to get involved. Think about this, If I
don't know the answer, one who cares, contributes, and has asked these
questions many times before, what about all the others that didn't care to
ask?

>  They're friendly people,
> though, and their e-mail addresses are given on the website.

I have only found them to be so and hope that they see clearly my goal is
not finger pointing and complaining, but active discussion to fix things,
get involved, and contribute.

David Botton

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