Re: GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is now available

["Ludovic Brenta" <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Jacob Sparre Andersen a écrit :
> Jamie Ayre wrote:
>
> > AdaCore announces the immediate availability of the GNAT GPL 2005
> > Edition.
>
> Unfortunately it appears that I am not - in my professional capacity
> - among the intended users (and you have to declare your purpose,
> before you get to download the compiler). :-(
>
> I will stick to the GNU Ada compiler supplied by Debian, so I don't
> have to use different compilers at work and at home.

Out of curiosity, which one of the GNATs supplied by Debian do you
use?  Sarge has gnat (3.15p), gnat-3.3 (3.3.6) and gnat-3.4 (3.4.3).
All of them use the GMGPL for the run-time library.  Etch (currently
in testing and in a state of flux) has gnat (3.15p), gnat-3.4 (3.4.4)
and gnat-4.0 (4.0.1).

I've downloaded GNAT GPL 2005 Edition and will review it as time
permits.  If I execute on my previously published Debian Policy for
Ada, this GPL Edition will become the next "gnat" package in Debian
Etch.  The fact that the run-time library uses the GPL is not a
problem for me, nor is it for Debian (for example, Debian already
supplies Qt which is also GPL).  However, if sufficiently many people
object to this, I will reconsider.

As of now, there are several possible choices for the next default Ada
compiler in Debian:

* GNAT GPL 2005 Edition, with libgnat under GPL (from
  libre.adacore.com)

* gnat-3.4, with libgnat-3.4 under GMGPL (from gcc.gnu.org)

* gnat-4.0, with libgnat-4.0 under GMGPL (from gcc.gnu.org)

* gnat-3.4 from gcc.gnu.org, with patches merged from GNAT GPL 2005
  Edition, retaining the libgnat-3.4 under GMGPL.  This means much
  more work for me, and I invite contributions.  This also means that
  this compiler will be different from compilers in all other
  distributions.

Please take into account that recent versions of ASIS and GLADE are
only available under GPL, not GMGPL.  The same is true for AWS,
GtkAda, XML/Ada etc. but is less of a concern because these libraries
are not tightly coupled with the compiler.

Please cast a vote on this forum.  This is the time to influence the
next version of Debian.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.