From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,3e26dfa741e64e5f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!postnews.google.com!g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: "Ludovic Brenta" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is now available Date: 16 Sep 2005 01:28:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1126859331.001562.244850@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> References: <%HlWe.24656$rv5.7129@reader1.news.jippii.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.190.145.10 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: posting.google.com 1126859336 20840 127.0.0.1 (16 Sep 2005 08:28:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 08:28:56 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <%HlWe.24656$rv5.7129@reader1.news.jippii.net> User-Agent: G2/0.2 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; fr-FR; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040116,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) X-HTTP-Via: 1.1 SEVPXS01 Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com; posting-host=212.190.145.10; posting-account=ZjNXewwAAADyBPkwI57_UcX8yKfXWOss Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:4778 Date: 2005-09-16T01:28:51-07:00 List-Id: Yes, AdaCore only work on the main line of development in GCC. Yes, this means that very few updates are being made to the Ada part of GCC 4.0. And yes, it is true that the FSF considers Ada not to be a release criterion for any release of GCC. That said, I have a history of backporting fixes from the head of GCC into "The Debian Ada compiler". I have backported about 20 such fixes into gnat 3.15p, and I intend to continue doing that for the next "Debian Ada compiler", whichever that is. Of course, I do this only on my spare time, and because I volunteer to do so. And, of course, I am only willing to support *one* branch this way; I have not backported any fixes into either gnat-3.4 or gnat-4.0 yet for this reason. So, if GCC 4.0 should be chosen as the next Ada compiler for Debian, chances are that I'll be able to backport Ada fixes from 4.1 into it. I make no promises, but at least I'll try if my time allows. I am not a fan of "the latest version at all costs". I prefer to choose a stable branch such as 3.4 or 4.0, and selectively backport fixes in order to improve *stability* and *correctness*. Anyone is free to join the GCC team and backport Ada fixes from HEAD to the active release branches (currently 3.4 and 4.0). There are criteria for which patches are acceptable in a release branch. Such patches are automatically picked up by Debian, as Debian uses the weekly snapshots of the release branches. Anyone is free to join Debian and contribute patches. Debian has many patches applied to its compilers (and kernels, and glibc, and binutils for that matter). Debian has chosen GCC 4.0 as its system C and C++ compiler for Etch. I think it would be perverse to choose GCC 4.1 as the Ada system compiler. That is why I did not consider 4.1 as a contender, even though 4.1 may be released before Etch. -- Ludovic Brenta.