Ada Semantics Interface Specification (ASIS) Background

Background on ASIS

The Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS) is an interface between an Ada environment as defined by ISO/IEC 8652 (the Ada Reference Manual) and any tool requiring information from this environment. An Ada environment includes valuable semantic and syntactic information. ASIS is an open and published callable interface which gives CASE tool and application developers access to this information. ASIS has been designed to be independent of underlying Ada environment implementations, thus supporting portability of software engineering tools while relieving tool developers from having to understand the complexities of an Ada environment's proprietary internal representation.

ASIS 83 is the ASIS interface to Ada 83 (ANSI 1815A:1983 equivalent to ISO/IEC 8652:1987). The specification for ASIS 83 is provided in the ASIS 83 Documents and Artifacts section.

ASIS 95 is the ASIS interface to Ada 95 (ISO/IEC 8652:1995). ASIS 95 is now available as ISO/IEC 15291:1999. Additional information about ASIS can be found in the ASIS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Background on ASISWG

The ASIS Working Group (ASISWG) was initially chartered by the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group on Ada (SIGAda) on 8 February 1993 to develop and participate in standardizing an implementation independent application programming interface to allow retrieval of the information stored within an Ada compiler's compilation database.

ASISWG developed ASIS83 and is nearing completion of development for ASIS 95. ASISWG is cooperating with ASISRG, who is responsible for the international standardization of ASIS 95. With the initial goal achieved for ASIS83, the ASISWG charter has undergone revisions:

Current Charter, approved by SIGAda's Executive Committee at SIGAda 2001 in September 2001
Charter of November 1995
Recent Charter of 28 June 1994
Initial Charter of 8 February 1993

Background on ASISRG

On 28 April 1995, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 unanimously voted to pursue the international standardization of ASIS by establishing the ASIS Rapporteur Group (ASISRG). A proposed New Work Item (NWI) was submitted by ASISRG to SC22 for formal approval. SC22 approved the Work Item on 2 February 1996. Here's details about the SC22 approval. ASISRG has coordinated the standardization effort, which in 1998 resulted in a successful Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) Ballot. The ASISRG will continue to address ASIS issues that impact the ASIS community. ASIS is now available as an ISO/IEC International Standard:

ISO/IEC 15291:1999
Information technology — Programming languages — Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS)

The ASIS Standard is available via the ISO Catalog at http://www.iso.ch/infoe/catinfo.html; the ASIS specific reference is located at http://www.iso.ch/cate/d27169.html.

Countries using ASIS include: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, UK, and the US. ASISRG and ASISWG are currently working together to evolve ASIS to support Ada 95. All interested parties are invited to participate.

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Last update 17 December 2001. Questions, comments to Clyde Roby (CRoby@IDA.Org)