The March 2024 Meetup just finished! Thanks to everybody who participated.

Quite a few topics were discussed, here is a list of topics and references to them:

• WolfSSL and its Ada binding
• FOSDEM
• Ada Developer Workshop taking place in Barcelona the 14th of June.
  • The (current) submission deadline for presentations is the 31st of March!
  • Online participation is expected. We will try and have a setup to let people participate online!
  • It was created in order to let the wider Ada community have a home to meet and talk about Ada. This is a "response" to the lack of an Ada DevRoom @ FOSDEM the past couple of years.
• Alire v2.0 is around the corner
  • Help test the new Release Candidate 1
  • Mac M1 (ARM64) support is in the works. Thanks Simon and Maxim!
• There is now a list of projects to work on in the main Ada-Lang webpage.
  • It focuses of projects that would help the wider Ada community.
• Ada support for org-mode code blocks (babel) is now going to be part of the official org-mode distribution of Emacs!
  • Thanks Francesc for the work!
• The NSA published a list of memory safe languages
  • Ada was not mentioned in the list of programming languages. Nonetheless Ada/SPARK are listed in the references.
  • Ada needs better visibility and "marketing".
• The GCC 14's Ada changelog section is on its way, stay tuned!

LatenceTech leverages Ada's capabilities to develop innovative network tools. They successfully implemented patented LIFBE process, reducing data volume for bandwidth testing by 90%.

Ada's low-level memory management and concurrency features were crucial for this project. GNAT Pro's real-time capabilities also ensured timely delivery.

This collaboration highlights Ada's suitability for energy-efficient network software and complex real-time systems.

Join the Ada community and empower the next generation of reliable, high-performance software!

TOC:

• J. P. Rosen. “Report on the ASIS BoF Session: The Future of ASIS and Vendor Independent Tools” 221
• C. Dross. “Containers for Specification in SPARK” 249
• S. Tucker Taft. “Rigorous Pattern Matching as a Language Feature” 255
• L. Humphrey. “Basic Formal Verification of a Waypoint Manager for Unmanned Air Vehicles in SPARK”

🎉 NetBSD has got GNAT 13, gprbuild and Alire!

LibMLKEM: a brand new, formally verified implementation of the post-quantum key exchange algorithm ML-KEM, built with the Ada & SPARK.

Why LibMLKEM?

• Rock-solid security: SPARK's formal verification guarantees no errors, leaks, or type issues.
• Independent & transparent: a completely new take on ML-KEM, free from existing code biases.
• Pushing the boundaries: a benchmark for formal verification tools like SPARK, CBMC, and Kani.

Not production-ready yet!

LibMLKEM is for research and demonstration purposes only. It prioritizes security and verifiability over optimization. The constant time property hasn't verified yet.

📆 I would like to announce the March (2024) Ada Monthly Meetup which will be taking place on the 9th of March at 14:00 UTC time (15:00 CET). As always the meetup will take place over at Jitsi. The Meetup will also be livestreamed to Youtube.

If someone would like to propose a talk or a topic, feel free to do so! We currently have no topics 😉

Mike Shah a computer science professor who teaches programming topics, primarily modern C++, C, D, game, and computer graphics. He is also a former senior 3D Graphics Engineer who worked at several game and graphics companies. He also has a YouTube channel where he covers a variety of software development topics with a focus on D and C++.

Over the past several months, he has been exploring several alternative high performance languages as part his First Impressions series, devoting a full episode to each one. Instead of giving a canned presentation, he lets the audience ride along on his journey as he tries to uncover the language's capabilities while sharing his impressions along the way.

His latest episode #16 covers Ada, which should be exciting after already covering 15 of them:

🛠 Ada first steps on ∞ Arduino Due!

Exciting news! 📖 The first four chapters of a new course "Advanced Journey With Ada: A Flight In Progress" are now available. Dive into topics like Data Types, Control Flow, Modular Programming, Resource Management and more. Download the PDF or EPUB 📦 or better read online 🌐 and try examples live in your browser 🔧!

In this webinar, Yannick Moy outlines key features of SPARK Pro, including demos on pointer ownership, function contracts and safe type casting.

Watch this session to learn more about:

• The rich possibilities for data representation in SPARK
• Available contracts on data types
• The ownership principle for tracking pointers to data
• Available contracts on functions
• Handling of bindings with C libraries, safe type casting, software-hardware interactions
• Specializing the analysis for a given target platform

🚀 pla-util, the power line adapter utility, is now part of Alire - your package manager for Ada!

Manage HomePlug AV2 compliant power line adapters like BCM60500 or BCM60333 effortlessly on Linux. Explore the capabilities with pla-util 2.1.1. Check out the commands, set configurations, and make the most of your power line adapters. 🛠️💡

Discover the latest advancements in Ada Extension 24.0.3! 🚀

This update introduces native support for Mac M1 and Linux ARM64, ensuring a smooth experience across various platforms. The compilation and proving tasks have undergone significant improvements. Benefit from better support for editing project files. Explore the future of Ada development!

Happy coding! 🌐

🚀 The Advent of Ada is here, challenging your coding skills with daily exercises from December 1st to 25th. Use Ada or SPARK for extra motivation: AdaCore donates $10 for each Ada solution and $20 for SPARK solutions (Silver level) to the Ada Developers Academy, up to $5,000. Dive in and make a difference! Don't forget to register on our leaderboard (1708445-6a8f7730) if you're participating. 🌟

Latitude, a French aerospace startup, selected Ada and SPARK for their Zephyr light launcher project, recognizing the languages' safety, reliability, and efficiency. The entire software, from device drivers to microcontroller logic, is written in Ada, showcasing its trust in the language's capabilities. The team leverages AdaCore's GNAT Pro and SPARK tools for robust development, positioning them for success in the competitive New Space industry.

PS. They are hiring...

Exciting News from AdaCore: Release 24.0 libraries are now hitting Alire! 🚀 The initial batch is in the index, featuring updates to aunit, xmlada, gnatcoll, and more. Dive into the improvements, bug fixes, and new features in these releases. Check out the details on GitHub: Alire PR #921 #AdaCore #Alire #AdaProgramming #adalang #ada

🚀 Irvise suggests adding a "Projects to Work On" section to Ada-Lang.io, focusing on improving the broader Ada ecosystem. Projects could range from Ada programming and Alire enhancements to documentation, marketing, and support initiatives. Share your thoughts and ideas to create a more user-friendly and impactful Ada development environment. Let's shape the future together!

Continued Progress in Ada Language!

Following the launch of Ada 2022, active discussions are underway to explore potential improvements for enumerated types. The primary objective is to streamline the process of setting representation values by integrating their specifications with type declarations. Various proposals are on the table, ranging from permitting overlapping representations to introducing unordered enumerations. This underscores Ada's dedication to continual enhancement. Your insights, as Ada practitioners, are invaluable – share your perspectives on these proposals and contribute to shaping the future of Ada programming!

Explore our new lightweight-threading library, bridging the gap until Ada 2022's anticipated parallel features arrive. Seamlessly manage threads with customizable scheduling using our plug-in architecture. Choose from our two LWT scheduler options: an OpenMP wrapper and a native Ada work-stealing solution.