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Ada, Ada with XML, and Medical Software

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Abstracts of Ada Papers that can be downloaded:

Abstract: The purpose of the workshop was to organize the Ada community to take advantage of the opportunity to create Ada applications that are operating systems independent because they are based on a web technology, XML, Extensible Markup Language. The commercial use of the Internet is the driving force behind XML. Four elements of XML, which together are sufficient to build a web application, and all employ the same syntax were described. These are XML; its schema; the Extensible Stylesheet Language, XSL; and the XML mechanism for forms, XForms. XML concerns the data objects that are included on the web page and their order of presentation. The schema contains the information on the types and objects for XML. Schemas are roughly equivalent to an Ada specification without the subprograms. Fortunately, the programming language that has the best fit with XML is Ada. XML has visibility and scoping rules, which are similar to Ada. XML has strong typing and has single inheritance similar to Ada. A mutually beneficial symbiosis requires the creation of applications in Ada that use and support XML, as well as, the use of XML to create Ada environments including XML based tools. These applications include: automated translation of Ada data types and objects in a specification to an XML schema;. and conversely, automated translation of the data types and elements in an XML Schema to an Ada specification.

Abstract: The focus of this Workshop, which occurred on October 20, 1999, was on extending the use of Ada into the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) domain. The goal of this Workshop is to determine what should we do to both make Ada the dominant language for COTS and profit by doing so? The contents of Sections 2. Red Hat, Where the Money Went, a Case Summary and 3. How to Commercialize Ada and Profit have been updated.

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Abstract: The combination of Ada's new class-wide programming with tagged types, generics, and representation clauses for both enumerated and record types greatly facilitates low level programming. A generic board register class was extended to represent the specific hardware and provide high level abstractions for reading and changing the states of the hardware registers. Subprograms included in this generic board register class include functions and procedures which address these registers by name and employ high-level syntax for bit manipulation. The use of these objects derived from the register class permits the development of easily understood, maintainable software for computer boards which control and acquire data from devices including scientific and medical instruments. A software library providing these and other relevant functionalities and an application with a commercial 100 megahertz scaler board for a PC will be described.

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Abstract: Two existing Ada tools AdaSAGE and AYACC were combined to produce a system that parses International Society for Analytical Cytology, ISAC, Flow Cytometry Standard 2.0 files and stores the data in AdaSAGE tables. There are significant differences in the way manufacturers interpret and conform to Flow Cytometry Standard 2.0. AdaSAGE is employed to analyze and plot the data from multiple experiments. This data is used to assess the stability of flow cytometers. The initial release will be for DOS. The utilization of AdaSAGE, which is a flexible database tool, will facilitate subsequent development of other products. The software engineer, whose previous professional experience was with C and C++, had very few problems with Ada syntax. The interface to the compiler and other tools was immature compared to those available for C++. The DOS text based user interface environment provided by AdaSAGE limited the functionality of the user interface. However, the present DOS 386 program can be directly ported to the newly released version of AdaSAGE for Microsoft Windows 95. Ada's strong type checking and package structure have significantly facilitated the development of the product.

Abstract: Medical devices now include a substantial software component, which is both difficult and expensive to produce and maintain. Medical software must be developed according to "Good Manufacturing Practices", GMP. Good Manufacturing Practices as specified by the FDA and ISO require the definition and compliance to a software processes which ensures quality products by specifying a detailed method of software construction. The software process should be based on accepted standards. US Department of Defense software standards and technology can both facilitate the development and improve the quality of medical systems. We describe the advantages of employing Mil-Std-498, Software Development and Documentation, and the Ada programming language. Ada provides the very broad range of functionalities, from embedded real-time to management information systems required by many medical devices. It also includes advanced facilities for object oriented programming and software engineering.

Abstract: Medical device development and manufacture is a large, regulated industry. Medical devices now include a substantial software component which must be developed according to "good manufacturing practices." Good manufacturing practices require the definition and enforcement of software processes which ensure quality products by defining a detailed method of software construction. Although the technical problems of creating a software process are significant, the political and human problems associated with its implementation are of greater difficulty. Our experience with organizing the software process including the transfer software technology from the defense industry to medical electronics will be discussed.