Concurrent Programming using Modern Computer Languages Twin Cities SIGAda presents: E. Wayne Donaho and Paul Stachour Concurrent Programming using Modern Computer Languages Get a FREE Ada CDROM. See details following meeting announcement. 7:00 .. 9:00p.m., Thursday, May 20, 1999, University of St. Thomas, Science Building Room 275, St. Paul Campus, corner of Cretin and Grand Avenue. (detailed directions below) The topic is Concurency in Modern Programming Languages, in particular C/C++, Java, and Ada. Todays computer programs are no longer the simple sequential programs that we learned in school. Programs are expected to perform tasks (often more than one task) while waiting for input from the user. The fact that concurrency must be handled in our programs forces programers to use more complex tools to handle these programs. Issues that must be dealt with include: How to initiate a tasking system How to syncronize multiple tasks How two tasks communicate information How a multiple task program shuts down in an orderly fashion Is being thread-safe and exception-safe easy or hard? Examples from the 3 languages. To handle this problem modern languages give us tools which allow us to deal with these problems in a cost effective manner. We will review the tools that each of three modern computer languges ( C/C++, Java and Ada ) give programmers to deal with the problems introduced by concurrency. About the Speakers: Wayne Donaho is freelancing building Database Driven Web sites for small businesses. Wayne has used Ada since the mid 1980's, including building large multi-task, multicomputer systems at Unisys (now Lockheed-Martin). Wayne is teaching about Ada95 features at a local company which builds higly reliable software. Paul Stachour is the Software Quality Manager at a local company building software for the internet. Paul has been interested in concurrency issues since he was introduced to BSAM IO in 1968. He has written concurrent programs in PL/I, C, and Ada. He has observed that doing concurrency "outside of the language" does not seem to scale, while doing it "inside the language" makes it easy and reliable. Paul has been interested in what makes software "quality software" ever since. In particular, he is interested in what languages, features, tools, and processes prevent defects. Paul is the current president of TCSIGAda. Directions to St. Thomas: Take I94 to the Cretin Avenue exit in St.Paul. Turn south off the exit, towards the Mississippi River. There are traffic lights at Marshal and Summit Avenues. The first street after Summit is Grand, turn right on Grand, it becomes the road into the parking lot. If you do not have a St. Thomas parking sticker, you will need to park at a parking meter. OSS is the building immediately to the north and east of the parking meters. 275 is on the second floor; take the stairway in the SW corner of the building to the 2nd floor, then look for posted directions to the room. Please contact Paul Stachour if you need additional directions. Free Offer: The first two individuals to respond to Mark Glewwe, publicity, [log in to unmask] with their name and intention to attend this May 20th TCSIGAda meeting, and show up at the meeting, will win a free Walnut Creek Ada 2-CDROM, with a listed value of $35. This offer is available to anyone who has *not* previously won a prize at a TCSIGAda meeting. For information about TCACMSIGAda, call (612)-884-5977 or visit www.tcsigada.org A more nicely formatted version of this announcement is found at www.tcsigada.org/meeting/may99mtg.htm