John Mashey, Director of Systems Technology for Silicon Graphics R&D, will discuss
current and expected hardware trends during his dynamic SGI-powered presentation. Mashey
explores "wetware" (that's us humans) and human interface technology issues. He addresses
the implications for applications and software development approaches and the role
Ada may play.
John Mashey is an 'ancient' UNIX person, having started work on it at Bell Labs in 1973. He
has worked on and managed projects in both commercial and technical computing, helped design
the MIPS RISC architecture, and was one of the founders of the SPEC benchmarking group. An
ACM National Lecturer for 4 years and guest editor for IEEE Micro, John Mashey has given more
than 500 public talks on software engineering, RISC design, performance benchmarking, and
supercomputing.
Wednesday, November 8
We 8:30-10:00 AM
"The GNU Project and Ada"
Richard H. Stallman,
Free Software Foundation
Richard Stallman, the principal author of the GNU C compiler, will speak about the purpose,
history, status and plans of the GNU project, and how they relate to the GNU Ada translator,
GNAT. Outside the Ada and C communities, Stallman is perhaps best known as the President of
the Free Software Foundation, established to promote the freedom to study, share, change and
improve software without intellectual property constraints. A graduate of Harvard, Stallman
is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship; his development of the Emacs programmable
text editor was recognized by the presentation of ACM's Grace Hopper Award.
Thursday, November 9
Th 8:30-10:00 AM
"Evolution and Abstraction"
John G. P. Barnes, Author
John Barnes, a member of the design teams for the development of both Ada 83 and Ada 95,
asserts that programming languages have evolved largely through a growing understanding of
abstraction. The challenge, as software increasingly pervades society, is to balance the
freedom to do what we need against the freedom from errors caused by our doing what we
should not. Ada 95 is designed to appropriately balance these freedoms. A graduate of
Trinity College Cambridge, Barnes has held numerous positions within both the commercial
and professional sectors of the Ada community. Currently, he is President of Ada-Europe and
is perhaps best known for his textbook, Programming in Ada, now in its fourth edition.
Recognition for his service includes SIGAda's outstanding Ada Community Contribution Award.
Friday, November 10
Fr 8:30-9:30 AM
"A Journalist's View of Ada"
Peter C. Coffee, PC Week Labs
Peter Coffee, the Advanced Technologies Analyst for PC Week Labs, will share a journalist's
perspective on the state and direction of the information technology industry and Ada's
position and opportunities within that industry. With Engineering and Business degrees
from MIT and Pepperdine, respectively, Coffee worked for Exxon and Aerospace Corporation
before becoming a full-time journalist. His other activities include teaching, ham radio,
flying and participation in the Los Angeles chapter of ACM. He is the winner of the first
Media Excellence Award presented by OS/2 Professional magazine.
FR1 Fr 9:30-9:45 AM
TRI-Ada Awards. Best Paper and Best Presentation Awards, Terry Doran,
Northrop Grumman Corporation
FR2 Fr 10:30-12:00 PM
Panel: Choices in Object-Oriented Languages,
Ada 95 may be the first internationally standardized language
for object-oriented programming, but C++ leads in the marketplace
and Smalltalk occupies a rapidly growing niche. Presumably, and
of three are suitable form many o-o applications, but how can
you select the most appropriate language for any particular
application?
This panel features three internationally recognized experts
prepared to discuss the relative features, advantages and benefits
of each of the three languages. Rob Murray of Quantitative Data
Systems, and founding editor of The C++ Report, moderates.
Alex Stepanov of Silicon Graphics, and principal designer of the
Standard Template Library, represents C++. Tucker Taft of
Intermetrics and principal designer of Ada 95, speaks for Ada 95.
George Bosworth, of Digitalk, and SIGS Publications Advisory Board
member, represents Samlltalk.
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