1.1 ACATS Purpose

The purpose of the ACATS is to check whether an Ada compilation system is a conforming implementation, i.e., whether it produces an acceptable result for every applicable test.

A fundamental goal of conformity assessment (validation) is to promote Ada software portability by ensuring consistent processing of Ada language features as prescribed by the Ada Standard documents ([Ada95], [TC1], and [Amend1]). ACATS tests use language features in contexts and idioms expected in production software. While they exercise a wide range of language feature uses, they do not and cannot include examples of all possible feature uses and interactions.

It is important to recognize that the ACATS tests do not guarantee compiler correctness. A compilation system that correctly processes the ACATS tests is not thereby deemed error-free, nor is it thereby deemed capable of correctly processing all software that is submitted to it.

The ACATS tests do not test the quality of an Ada implementation. In particular, ACATS test do not check or report performance parameters (e.g., compile-time capacities or run-time speed). They do not check or report for characteristics such as the presence and effectiveness of compiler optimization. They do not investigate or report compiler or implementation choices in cases where the standard allows options.