[GAP] GNAT Academic 2005 Announcement

[Louise Arkwright]

Dear GAP Member,

Annnouncing GNAT Academic 2005 !!!

****Available for the Linux and Solaris platforms within the next few 
hours****
**Available for the Windows and Darwen platforms slightly later**

AdaCore is pleased to announce the availability of GNAT Academic 2005 
implementing an important part of Ada 2005. We encourage you to download 
this new version and start experimenting with the new language features 
implemented in the GNAT Academic development environment.

We will inform you once the different platform versions are available 
and you will be able to download  GNAT Academic 2005 through the Ada 
academic community web server, GNAT Tracker:

https://www.adacore.com/gnattracker-gap/

Here are some of the major, recently implemented, Ada 2005 features:

1. New language level features:
    a. Abstract interface types to provide multiple inheritance
    b. Task, protected and synchronized interfaces
    c. Limited-with and Private-with clauses
    d. Prevention of accidental overloading when overriding
    e. Object.operation notation
    f. General use of anonymous access subtypes
    g. Limited aggregates
    h. Access to constant parameters and null-excluding access subtypes
    i. Unchecked_Unions for interfacing with C
    j. Nested type extensions
    i. Support for 16-bit and 32-bit characters

2. New standard libraries
    a. Container library
    b. Complete definition of string subprograms (fixed,
        bounded, unbounded)
    c. Directory operations

3. Ravenscar profile for High-Integrity Systems

Please note that the design of Ada 2005 is not yet officially finalized, 
and that the GNAT Academic implementation corresponds to the current 
state (June 2005) of the design documents. We do not expect any 
significant changes in the semantics of the features already 
implemented, but Ada 2005 itself is not an official language revision 
until the final document is submitted to ISO (which might not happen 
until 2006). Needless to say, we are tracking closely all design 
decisions and adapting GNAT Academic to keep our implementation 
conformant to them.

The GAP version is licensed under the GPL, which allows for free 
interchange of modified versions, improvements, etc., in the academic 
community. It also allows for free interchange of compiled programs 
containing parts of the GNAT run time library, provided that sources are 
also made available.

Best regards,

AdaCore

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AdaCore                                          Tel: +33 1 49 70 67 16
8 rue de Milan                                   Fax: +33 1 49 70 05 52
75009 Paris                                      arkwright at adacore.com
France                                           www.adacore.com
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