Adaptive Communication Environment

Last updated
ADAPTIVE Communication Environment (ACE)
Initial release1993;30 years ago (1993)
Stable release
7.0.11 / December 19, 2022;59 days ago (2022-12-19) [1]
Written in C++
Type Object-oriented C++ classes Framework for Network
Website www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html

The Adaptive Communication Environment (ACE) is an open source software framework used for network programming. It provides a set of object-oriented C++ classes designed to help address the inherent complexities and challenges in network programming by preventing common errors. [2]

Contents

History

ACE was initially developed by Douglas C. Schmidt during his graduate work at the University of California, Irvine. Development followed him to the Washington University in St. Louis, where he was employed. ACE is open-source software released by WU's Distributed Object Computer (DOC) group. Its development continued in the Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) at Vanderbilt University. [3]

Features

ACE provides a standardized usage for operating system/machine specific features. It provides common data types and methods [4] to access the powerful but complex features of modern operating systems. These include: inter-process communication, thread management, efficient memory management, etc.

It was designed to be portable and provide a common framework. The same code will work on most Unixes, Windows, VxWorks, QNX, OpenVMS, etc., with minimal changes. [5] Due to this cross-platform support, it has been widely used in the development of communication software. Some of the successful projects that have used ACE includes: Motorola Iridium satellites, Boeing Wedgetail's Australian airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) system, and others. [6]

ACE used software design patterns. [7]

See also

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References

  1. Willemsen, Johnny (19 December 2022). "ACE 7.0.11 and TAO 3.0.11 available for download". ace-announce (Mailing list). Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  2. C++ Network Programming, Volume 1, Schmidt and Huston, Addison Wesley Professional, 2001
  3. ACE Programmer's Guide, The: Practical Design Patterns for Network and Systems Programming, Huston, Johnson and Syyid, Addison Wesley Professional, 2003
  4. Wrapper Facade, A Structural Pattern for Encapsulating Functions within Classes, Schmidt, http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/wrapper-facade.pdf
  5. Porting ACE to a New OS, https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/DOCGroup/ACE_TAO/blob/master/ACE/docs/ACE-porting.html
  6. ACE and TAO Success Stories, http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/TAO-users.html
  7. Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture, Volume 2, Schmidt et al., Jon Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2000