Re: C to JVM, time to revive JGNAT?

[napi@axiomsol.com]

Hi:

Colin Paul Gloster wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
>
> "AMPC (Axiomatic Multi-Platform C):
>
> http://www.axiomsol.com/
> "
>
> From the homepage of Axiomatic Solutions:
>
> "If you write Java code, you can write once and run anywhere!"
>
> and
>
> "I write C code, and with AMPC I can write once and run anywhere!"
>
> and
>
> "The best and easiest way to convert C programs to standard Java
> bytecodes (classes) is AMPC from Axiomatic Solutions"
>
> yet AMPC is released only as versions depending on a specific platform, so
> will not even run on all Java platforms. If platform independence is not
> good enough to distribute AMPC, why is it good enough for AMPC's users?

The compiler/IDE itself comes in three versions (Linux, Mac OSX, and MS
Windows), but the generated code (.class files) should be able to run
on any properly installed JVM/JRE.  In other words, AMPC is a
cross-compiler suite whose development platforms are Linux, Mac OSX,
and MS Windows, all targeting the platform-independent JVM.

> Also, from WWW.AxiomSol.com/pro_serv/compiler.php :
>
> "[..]
>
> AMPC allows users to develop software using the standard C programming
> language [..]
>
> [..]
>
> AMPC covers a very large subset of ANSI C (1989). A notable difference is
> that "double" in AMPC is 32 bits long. In order to utilize 64-bit
> floating point you can use "DOUBLE".
>
> [..]"
>
> So though AMPC is described as standard in one part of the documentation,
> it is not standard and someone's interpretation of what the C standard
> even is seems to be amiss.

The ANSI C standard does not specify the size of scalar variables since
there are various CPU architectures out there from 8 bits to 64 bits,
etc.  So, making "double" to be 32 bits or even 16 bits is still
conformant to the ANSI C standard, although abnormal.  AMPC actually
supports 64 bit floating point by means of the type DOUBLE.

Regards.

Napi