wanted: PD Ada Interpreter written in C

wanted: PD Ada Interpreter written in C

[Glassy]

Do any validated Ada interpreters written in C exist?   Any PD ones obtainable
from an anon. ftp site?  

As a CS u/g wading through the usual stream of data structures/algorithms
courses, I wince at having to try to emulate 'abstract' (generic!) data
types in ISO Pascal.  As an experiment last quarter, I wrote one of my
assignments in Ada ( a PD version for PC's, JANUS-Ada ), and while the
performance of this specific implementation did not impress me 
(compilation speed of ~140 lines/min., on a 12-Mhz 80286 w/ 80287 &
1 meg RAM, 30 Meg 28-ms hard disk), Ada's facilities for structuring
data in a simple and digestible way, did.

Why PD from ftp site?  Answer:  look at DEC's software prices!
Why in C?  Ans:  to be able to port to any of the local Unix/VMS platforms.
Why interpreted?  well, a compiled version -would- be preferable,
but I suspect people would be more comfortable giving an interpreter 
away.  and the GNU people seem to want nothing to do with Ada...

Any pointers would be dearly appreciated.  Please e-mail responses;
I'll post summary to net if I'm swamped with replies... :)

Thanks in advance,

Lou Glassy
icsu8209@caesar.cs.montana.edu
(Bitnet:  icsu8209@mtsunix1)

p.s. if this is not the right group to ask things like this in, i'll
gladly follow any good advice that comes my way.

(std-discl apply etc)

Re: wanted: PD Ada Interpreter written in C

[Terry J. Westley]

In article <3447@caesar.cs.montana.edu> icsu8209@caesar.cs.montana.edu (Glassy) writes:
>Do any validated Ada interpreters written in C exist?   Any PD ones obtainable
>from an anon. ftp site?  
>...
>assignments in Ada ( a PD version for PC's, JANUS-Ada ), and while the

I doubt if RR Software is too pleased about JANUS Ada being identified
as public domain software.  Or, is there a PD version that I don't know about?

Anyway, their "C" pack includes a validated compiler in which you could
do all the data structuring you'd like.  Last I checked it was ~ $130.

Disclaimer:  I have no interest in RR software other than having
purchased and used the "C" pack and wish there were a version on the Mac.

If you find such a PD interpreter, please post.

Terry J. Westley
Arvin/Calspan Advanced Technology Center
P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225
acsu.buffalo.edu!planck!westley@hercules

what is an Ada compiler

[John F Nixon]

westley@aardvark.uucp (Terry J. Westley) writes:
>Anyway, [Janus Ada's] C pack includes a validated compiler in which you could
>do all the data structuring you'd like.  Last I checked it was ~ $130.

A friend purchased one of the Janus products; he was quite pleased with it.
However, I noticed there was no tasking and (I think) no
generic support.  How can RR/janus call this an Ada compiler?  What
happened to the no super/subset rule?  Just curious...

(p.s., I would be interested in a low cost Mac Ada compiler, too)

----
jnixon@atl.ge.com                    ...steinmetz!atl.decnet!jnxion

Re: what is an Ada compiler

[Loren Louis Hart]

jnixon@atl.ge.com writes:
>westley@aardvark.uucp (Terry J. Westley) writes:
>>Anyway, [Janus Ada's] C pack includes a validated compiler in which you could
>>do all the data structuring you'd like.  Last I checked it was ~ $130.
>
>A friend purchased one of the Janus products; he was quite pleased with it.
>However, I noticed there was no tasking and (I think) no
>generic support.  How can RR/janus call this an Ada compiler?  What
>happened to the no super/subset rule?  Just curious...

I am doing some contract work for RR software, and I can asure you that their
current compiler is fully validated and includes both tasking and generics.
I believe they had an early version of the compiler that was called an
"Ada education tool" that was not fully validated, but that was several years
ago.

As to the requests for a Mac version of their compiler, I will pass them along
to their marketing department.

Loren L. Hart
loren@cup.portal.com
San Jose, California

Re: wanted: PD Ada Interpreter written in C

[Glassy]

My apologies to the RR crew.  I was laboring under the (false) 
impression that JANUS was PD.  To persist with my original
objective, if a PD Ada does not exist (and apparently it doesn't),
can anyone recommend (no blasphemy intended) -another- 
imperative, procedural language which -does- support abstract
data types?

By 'abstract data types' I mean types whose gory implementation-details
can be separated from their external behavior.  The moth-eaten example 
that comes to mind is SWAP(A,B)...which will swap any two objects
A and B, provided type(A)=type(B).  

Open to suggestions,

Lou Glassy
icsu8209@caesar.cs.montana.edu