Re: GNAT R/T Annex and Win95

[Dave Wood <dpw@thomsoft.com>]

Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> Marin said
> 
> "    Do you consider Windows NT capable of being a "realtime" operating
>     system? (It doesn't seem to be advertised as such.... yet.)
> 
> First, of course Windows NT is capable of realtime operatoin. You need to
> examine its specs closely, and probably stick to the realtime thread
> priority group if you want Ada-style run-till-blocked absolute
> priorities.
> 
> Second, GNAT is being used in many projects involving contract deliverables.
> The Airfields project, one of the first, perhaps the first deployed
> applications using Ada 95 was done using GNAT, and many other significant
> projects inside and outside the DoD, including for example, the high
> reliability medical equipment programs done by JEOL and the Aegis program,
> are using GNAT, which was the first validated general purpose Ada 95
> compiler, and is still the only Ada 95 techology that covers the full
> language including all the annexes.
> 
> Now you might have meant "GNAT without support" might be usable here, in
> which case that's a little more understandable, although personally I
> would not use unsupported software even for internal development.

Goodness, Robert, I can't imagine why you would say that!  ;-)

(Skip the following to avoid a semi-advertisment...)

Marin, you might also consider looking into ObjectAda for Windows from
Thomson Software Products, which is currently in beta release.  This
is the first (and still the only... *wink*) validated Ada 95 compiler 
for Windows 95 and Windows NT.  This validation was awarded last 
December and includes the real-time annex.

True, the final product with all the nice environment goodies (GUI Builder,
MFC bindings, etc.) won't ship until the summertime, but you might find
it worth the wait.

For your harder real-time needs, we're also working on an embedded Win32
solution that will be available in roughly the same time frame.

For further information, feel free to contact me directly.

-- Dave Wood dpw@thomsoft.com
-- Windows Product Manager
-- Thomson Software Products (for now, at least)
-- http://www.thomsoft.com