From: ichbiah@twsolutions.com (Jean D. Ichbiah)
Subject: Re: Ada to C++ Translators
Date: 1998/02/18
Date: 1998-02-18T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <34eb5d36.20077308@news.tiac.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 6c9tjc$obg@universe.digex.net
On 16 Feb 1998 12:38:52 -0500, dweller@universe.digex.net (David
Weller) wrote:
> In article <1998Feb13.213046.1@eisner>,
> Larry Kilgallen <Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam> wrote:
> >In article <34E47622.15EB@atc-1s.hac.com>, David Kusuda <dkusu@atc-1s.hac.com> writes:
> >> I'm pretty sure that this has been discussed before, but can anyone
> >> direct me towards an Ada to C++ translator? Any information would be
> >> greatly appreciated.
[...]
> Let's save Mr. Kusuda a bag of time:
>
> 1) It can be done
> 2) Over a lot of time
> 3) With a lot of money
> 4) Starting from scratch is MUCH cheaper
> 5) It's a pretty dumb thing to do anyway
> (It takes less code to do a project in Ada95 than in C++)
Why so intolerant? Perhaps if you are asking about an automatic
translator. But hand translation is possible. A well-designed Ada
program will translate into a well-designed C++ program. (And a messy
Ada program - I have seen some horrifying examples too - will convert
into another mess.) In this context of hand translation:
1) is certainly true.
2) is incorrect. For a well designed program, it can be done in
linear time.
3) is wrong.
4) is wrong also: why repeat the careful analysis done in the first
place
5) is an academic assertion.
Let me give an example: I am doing most of my development using
Delphi. (More precisely, I program in Ada and use the Delphi compiler
to compile them. :)
Recently, however, I have been porting one of our applications to
Windows CE for the Palm PC. While I wish a Delphi or Ada compiler
had been available for this environment, there is none and I had to
convert the program to C++. While there are certain irritating
things with the arcane C syntax, I was able to produce something
that was line per line (almost) parallel to the original.
The namespace concept helped a lot. My impression of C++ is that
it is a huge language and that you can easily get lost. But if you
start from a clean model, it is easier to restrict yourself to a
manageable subset.
Jean Ichbiah
Textware Solutions
ichbiah@twsolutions.com
http://www.twsolutions.com
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-02-18 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 22+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-02-13 0:00 Ada to C++ Translators David Kusuda
1998-02-14 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1998-02-16 0:00 ` David Weller
1998-02-18 0:00 ` Jean D. Ichbiah [this message]
1998-02-18 0:00 ` David Weller
1998-02-18 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-02-21 0:00 ` Esa Pulkkinen
1998-02-23 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-02-19 0:00 ` Jean D. Ichbiah
1998-02-19 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1998-02-25 0:00 ` Scott Leschke
1998-02-25 0:00 ` David Weller
1998-02-19 0:00 ` Delphi & Ada; Ada to C++ Nick Roberts
1998-02-19 0:00 ` David Weller
1998-02-19 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-02-19 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1998-02-20 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-02-21 0:00 ` Richard Kenner
1998-02-21 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-02-21 0:00 ` Simon Wright
1998-02-21 0:00 ` Richard Kenner
1998-03-05 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
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