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=0.7 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9e20292f693f1408 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Stephen Leake Subject: Re: ADA CORE TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES GNAT-TO-JAVA SYSTEM Date: 1997/09/15 Message-ID: <341D47EE.3804@gsfc.nasa.gov>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 272657463 References: <34196E8E.1790@gsfc.nasa.gov> Reply-To: Stephen.Leake@gsfc.nasa.gov Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-09-15T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote: > > Stephe says > > < write JVM byte codes, but are instead implementing a new backend in Ada. > This is cool! Will this backend be as data-driven as gcc? What I really > want to know is; will I be able to adapt the new backend to my flight > processor, and abandon gcc? gcc is great, but adapting it means writing > K&R level C; I'd much rather be writing Ada95!>> > > That's right -- making GCC produce JVM byte code makes no sense, since the > level of abstraction is quite wrong. What we are doing is a completely new > backend that generates JVM from the GNAT tree. I guess I need to read up on the JVM. I've been assuming it was at the same level as the UCSD Pascal P-machine; basically a virtual 32 bit processor, with operations like a current-generation RISC chip. I guess this is wrong. Can anyone recommend a _good_ intro to the JVM? I go to Borders, and have a hard time choosing from all the books promising to teach me Java in 10 days :). > > As to your question about adaptation, if you believe that going through > JVM and JIT compilers etc can yieled acceptably efficient code then indeed > you can follow this path (and perhaps you can also get a job as a publicity > agent for Sun :-) Yeah, and I can deliver a Working System Real Soon Now. I hoped I would be able to take your new backend, and make it generate assembler for my chip, instead of "assembler" for the JVM. Even if you are not replacing gcc for real processors now, maybe you could try to make it possible to eventually use this backend as a replacement for part of gcc (talk about vague requirements!). We need to get away from K&R in the core of our compilers sometime! I guess this is what Intermetrics has; the AdaMagic front end accommodates several backends. Is that all written in Ada? -- - Stephe