On Thu, 24 Jul 1997, Eric James DeArment wrote:
> Do you know of any places where I can find robotics-related programs in
> Ada?

I don't know of any available in Ada. There was a book that dealt with
embedded systems programming using Ada 83 on a micro. In January I tried
to buy it but it was not available from the publisher.

Also Embedded Systems Programming (ESP) magazine has a site that contains
source code but so far little is in Ada. http://www.embedded.com/

Though I've heard some other teamers were trying to convert some ESP
source code into Ada 95. I forget who.

The following list has a Robotics FAQ (but no pointer to the Ada FAQ)
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html

Using Ada 95 or its subsets for robotics work is too new to find books
available. I suggest investigating the above sources from time to time.
And become very familar with a microcontroller that already has or is
slated to have an Ada compiler available. Check www.adahome.com for the
current list of compilers.

My guess is it will probably be 1998 before any books appear describing
using Ada 95 with robotics. I am specializing by supporting XA
microcontrollers. I don't know what is available for other microcontroller
architectures. Robotics projects that I become heavily involved with will
use my Ada 95 subset for XA. I expect that my tools and information for XA
will become available within a year.

Whatever you find useful in C or assembler for a microcontroller should
translate into Ada. For instance, XA can use assembler source code written
for 8051 which already has alot of code available. Until you can actually
use Ada with a particular microcontroller then my best advice is to study
robotics in general and use what is available.

-- John Howard <[log in to unmask]>               -- Team Ada  Team OS/2 --