Birds-of-a-feather session:
Future of ASIS and vendor independent tools

17 June 2022, morning

Chair: Jean-Pierre Rosen

Ada is a complex language to compile and analyze; ASIS is an international standard that alleviates the burden of writing third-party program analysis tools by providing access to the syntactic tree built by the compiler with an API for traversing the tree, syntactic and semantic queries, etc. Several tools and utilities have been designed that build on ASIS.

The ASIS standard has not been updated beyond the Ada 95 version of the language. Some vendors support strictly the standard, hence only Ada 95 technology. Others vendors have implemented extensions for later versions of Ada. On the whole, the long-term support of ASIS is uncertain.

This situation raises concerns for third-party tool developers and users. This BoF session aims at gathering tool users, tool writers, compiler vendors, and other interested parties into an informal meeting to discuss the following topics:

• User expectations on existing and future program analysis tools
• Opportunities for updating the ASIS standard
• Support for ASIS (by vendors or volunteers)
• Viability of abandoning ASIS to migrate to different libraries.

Minutes of the meeting will be kept, for publication in the Ada User Journal.

Who should attend

• Users who want to voice their needs and expectations regarding current and future program-analysis tools.
• Tool vendors who want to express their needs, influence future directions, or be informed of possible alternatives.
• Compiler vendors who want to listen to the needs of the customer base
• Volunteers considering to help with continued support for ASIS

Outline of the session

The meeting will start at 9:30, with expected end at 12:00, and a refreshment break from 10:30 to 11:00.

1. Welcome and presentation of ASIS (J-P. Rosen)
2. Presentation by compiler vendors of their existing solutions and future plans (compiler vendors)
3. Presentation by tool vendors of their needs and concerns (tool vendors)
4. General discussion

Registration

Participation in this BoF meeting is allowed only by registration, which is free. Lunch is not included in the registration but a lunch ticket may be purchased while registering. Tool vendors and compiler vendors who want to make a presentation should inform the session chair as soon as possible, preferably before 20 May 2022.