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<article class="faq">
<articleinfo>
<title>TenDRA - Frequently Asked Questions</title>
<corpauthor>The TenDRA Project</corpauthor>
<author>
<firstname>Jeroen</firstname>
<surname>Ruigrok van der Werven</surname>
</author>
<authorinitials>JRvdW</authorinitials>
<pubdate>2004</pubdate>
<copyright>
<year>2004</year>
<year>2005</year>
<holder>The TenDRA Project</holder>
</copyright>
</articleinfo>
<para>First draft of the FAQ. Lame set-up, no nice colours, and so on.
Also, the order is based on nothing for now.</para>
<qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandadiv id="tendra-history">
<title>TenDRA History</title>
<qandaentry id="what-is-dera">
<question>
<para>What is/was QinetiQ/Dstl/DERA/DRA?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>According to <ulink
url="http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=4256&CATLN=3&Highlight=&FullDetails=True#admin">the
National Archives of the United Kingdom</ulink>:</para> <para>The
Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) had
its origins in the Research Department Woolwich, and its Design
Department which was established in 1922 and was concerned with
the engineering design and development of weapons.</para>
<para>At the end of 1942 the Design Department moved to Fort
Halstead, Kent, followed later by the Research Department. They
were designated the Armament Design Department and the Armament
Research Department (ARD) respectively. In 1948 the ARD's name was
changed to Armament Research Establishment (ARE).</para>
<para>The two departments were amalgamated in 1955 to form the
Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), to
integrate all stages of research, design and development. On 8
February 1962 the title of Royal Armament Research and Development
Establishment was granted.</para>
<para>RARDE moved from MOD (Army) to become part of the new MOD/CER
(Controllerate of Research and Development Establishments and
Research) in 1971, its primary concern continuing in the research,
design and development of conventional armaments for the Royal
Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, whilst also providing help for the
Home Office on the hazards of explosives, dangerous chemicals and
the forensic aspects of explosives.</para>
<para>During the 1980s RARDE amalgamated with the Military Vehicle
Engineering Establishment (MVEE), whose main sites were located at
Chertsey and Christchurch, and the Propellants, Explosives and
Rocket Motor Establishment which was based at Waltham Abbey and
Westcott.</para>
<para>(Further according to <ulink
url="http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=62012&CATLN=3&Highlight=&FullDetails=True#admin">the
National Archives of the United Kingdom</ulink>:) On 1 April 1991
the Defence Research Agency (DRA) was set up incorporating in one
organisation the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE), the
Admiralty Research Establishment (ARE), the Royal Armament
Research and Development Establishment (RARDE), and the Royal
Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE). The DRA was established as
an executive Agency of the Ministry of Defence under the
Government's Next Steps Initiative.</para>
<para>The purpose of DRA was to "provide a more efficient research
organisation within the MoD." (Source: <ulink
url="http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmdfence/616/61607.htm">United
Kingdom Parliament's House of Commons' Select Committee on
Defence's Ninth Report, section 'The Future of DERA' and
onward</ulink>)</para>
<para>Having thus brought together its four non-nuclear research
establishments, MOD then brought together various elements
concerned with testing and evaluation, creating on 1 April 1992
the Directorate General of Test and Evaluation. DGT&E, the
responsibility of the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Defence
Procurement), was an amalgamation of various range and test
facilities. These included the Proof and Experimental
Establishments hitherto under the control of the Master General of
the Ordnance (MGO), the Armament and Aircraft Experimental
Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down (which was already
under DUS(DP)), DRA Pyestock (previously the National Gas Turbine
Establishment (NGTE), RAE Propulsion Department from 1983), and
various ranges that had been incorporated into DRA only a year
earlier.</para>
<para>Then on 1 April 1995 a further major amalgamation occurred,
creating the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). DERA
incorporated DRA and DGT&E, along with the Chemical and
Biological Defence Establishment (CBDE), the Defence Operational
Analysis Centre (DOAC), the Centre for Human Sciences (CHS), and
the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre (BUTEC). DERA's
initial structure comprised four operating divisions: CBDE, DRA,
CDA (Centre for Defence Analysis), and DTEO (Defence Test and
Evaluation Organisation).</para>
<para>In 1998, the Strategic Defence Review recommended a Public
Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement as the best means of
maximising the strategic value and operational cost effectiveness
of the United Kingdom's defence research capabilities.
Accordingly, during 2000/2001 DERA was split into two
organisations. The business areas to be retained by MOD were
grouped as R-DERA (i.e. Retained), while those considered
appropriate for operation in a fully commercial environment became
New-DERA.</para>
<para>New-DERA was re-structured to facilitate involvement by the
private sector and, comprising the greater part of DERA, was
re-created as the
<ulink url="http://www.qinetiq.co.uk/">QinetiQ Group</ulink>, a
wholly government-owned UK plc, in July 2001. R-DERA was
meanwhile re-named as the
<ulink url="http://www.dstl.gov.uk/">Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory (Dstl)</ulink> and continued as an MOD
agency, handling certain areas of research which it had been
decided should remain within the public sector.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry id="what-is-ten15">
<question>
<para>What is Ten15?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>We will fill this out soon.</para>
<para>See <ulink url="http://www.mca-ltd.com/martin/Ten15/">
An Introduction to Ten15 - A personal retrospective</ulink> in the
meantime</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="generic-questions">
<title>Generic</title>
<qandaentry id="what-are-andf-and-tdf">
<question>
<para>What are ANDF and TDF?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>TDF is an Architecture Neutral Distribution Format (ANDF). It
is similar to a machine-independent intermediate representation in a
compiler. The idea is that software vendors can sell a single
shrink-wrapped ANDF version (made by a `producer', similar to a
compiler front-end) of their stuff and anyone with an ANDF
`installer' (back end) on their machine can buy it and run it. It
is a bit like UNCOL in the breadth of its aims but seems to actually
work.</para>
<para>Only a subset of TDF was chosen by the OSF for its ANDF. This
subset is sufficient for ANSI C, but TDF as a whole was designed to
support (at least) FORTRAN, COBOL, C++, Ada, ML, and LISP
also.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry id="documents-papers-about-tendra">
<question>
<para>Which documents and papers exist for/about TenDRA and
ANDF?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>TDF Specification</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>TDF Facts and Figures</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>TDF and portability</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Introductory Guide to TDF</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="compilation-issues">
<title>Compilation issues</title>
<qandaentry id="cplusplus-compilation-support">
<question>
<para>I try to compile the following simple C++ program:
<programlisting>
#include <iostream.h>
int main()
{
cout << "hello world\n";
return (0);
}
</programlisting>
and the compiler is giving me errors.</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>This release only contains the bare minimum language support
library, not the fully standard C++ library. See the C++ producer
documentation for more details.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
</qandaset>
<para>This document was generated on
<?dbtimestamp format="Y-m-d H:M"?>.</para>
</article>