Re: GNAT 3.3 vs 3.15

[David Holm <david@realityrift.com>]

On 01 Apr 2003 15:19:33 -0500
Stephen Leake <Stephen.A.Leake@nasa.gov> wrote:

> David Holm <david@realityrift.com> writes:
> 
> > What are the problems of using GNAT 3.3 over 3.15? 
> 
> I'm not clear what you mean by "GNAT 3.3"; there is no such thing
> according to ACT. I guess you mean "The Ada compiler that comes with
> GCC 3.3". What does "gnatmake -v" say about the version?

Um, yes, I was under the impression that ACT wouldn't release more gnat versions but instead go
through gcc.
gnatmake -v says:
GNATMAKE 3.3 20030329 (prerelease) Copyright 1995-2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

> > What is new since 3.15? 
> 
> Bugs. The main difference is the gcc 3.x backend; it has a lot of
> changes since the gcc 2.8 that gnat 3.15 is based on. Some of those
> changes break GNAT. To be fair, some of them improve GNAT :). ACT is
> working on fixing things, but it's a slow process.
> 
> For example, the ACT candidate release of GNAT based on gcc 3.x
> (called GNAT 5.00a) is now available for customer testing; it has a
> bug that stopped me cold. They are fixing it, but I won't be using
> GNAT 5.00 (or GCC 3.3) until there is another release from ACT.
> 
> > I've been using 3.3 for a while and run it through my test suites
> > (some simple floating-point stuff) and so far have had nog problems.
> 
> Then you are ok; that's what tests are for, after all!
> 
> You should improve your test suite to truly test your application;
> that may make you feel more comfortable.
> 
> But keep GNAT 3.15 handy; if you encounter a weird problem, try it on
> 3.15 before you blame your code :).
> 
> -- 
> -- Stephe