AVR GCC/GNAT port quality ?

AVR GCC/GNAT port quality ?

[Simon Clubley]

I'm thinking of using the AVR microcontroller along with the AVR GNAT
compiler in a project.

Would anyone here like to offer an opinion on the quality of the GNAT
AVR port ?

Thanks,

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world

Re: AVR GCC/GNAT port quality ?

[Stephen Leake]

clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) writes:

> I'm thinking of using the AVR microcontroller along with the AVR GNAT
> compiler in a project.
>
> Would anyone here like to offer an opinion on the quality of the GNAT
> AVR port ?

I don't know about the AVR port in particular, but AdaCore in general
offers a very high quality product, both the compiler/runtime and the
support. I would assume the AVR port would be equally high quality.

If you anticipate buying their support for this project, you should
ask for an evaluation copy, and try it out.

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: AVR GCC/GNAT port quality ?

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

Stephen Leake wrote:
> 
> I don't know about the AVR port in particular, but AdaCore in general
> offers a very high quality product, both the compiler/runtime and the
> support. I would assume the AVR port would be equally high quality.

My understanding is that the GNAT AVR compiler is the best freely 
available Ada compiler for the AVR platform.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Oh Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou
mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy."
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
24

Re: AVR GCC/GNAT port quality ?

[Simon Clubley]

In article <u3b0e6g97.fsf@stephe-leake.org>, Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org> writes:
> 
> I don't know about the AVR port in particular, but AdaCore in general
> offers a very high quality product, both the compiler/runtime and the
> support. I would assume the AVR port would be equally high quality.
> 
> If you anticipate buying their support for this project, you should
> ask for an evaluation copy, and try it out.
> 

Thanks for responding.

[This is for a personal project BTW, so there's no commercial support
required.]

I'd developed in the impression the the AVR port was a community based port
and not an official ACT one which is why I was curious about the port
quality.

I use the FSF GCC Ada compiler on various OS's and architectures, and I
agree about it's quality, but this is the first time that I'm thinking
of using it on something as small as a microcontroller.

Since no one has made any negative comments, I think that trying it on
a small project will be the next step.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world

Re: AVR GCC/GNAT port quality ?

[Rolf]

On 25 Jun., 13:47, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon
Clubley) wrote:
> I'm thinking of using the AVR microcontroller along with the AVR GNAT
> compiler in a project.

Nice to see that someone is interested in AVR-Ada.  I can only
encourage you to try it out.  I built a data logger (several
temperatures and gas consumption) for my home based on the cheap AVR-
Butterfly.  And I also managed to make the first steps with the Asuro
robot (http://www.arexx.com/arexx.php?cmd=goto&cparam=p_asuro.dat)

> Would anyone here like to offer an opinion on the quality of the GNAT
> AVR port ?

The Ada compiler itself is quite good.  When I started the project
some years ago I had some ICE (internal compiler errors); they all
seem to be ironed out by the time.

But then you have to be careful what Ada constructs you want to use.
Most of them require extensive support in the run time system.  For
most constructs I do not yet provide the necessary files in the RTS.
Most notably there is no support (yet) for:
- tasking
- exceptions
- run time dispatching (aka tagged types)

On the other hand you can:
- access all IO pins
- attach procedures to interrupts
- use some predefined routines for LCD, RS232, flash memory, eeprom,
etc.
- have a lot of fun sqeezing Ada programs into a few hundred bytes.

I recommend you to join the mailing list at
http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/avr-ada-devel
or send me some direct email.

   Rolf