Re: What ada 83 compiler is *best*

[Marin David Condic <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com>]

Robert I. Eachus wrote:
> 
> In article <366E97F8.776355C4@pwfl.com> Marin David Condic <condicma@pwfl.com> writes:
> 
>   > {Parenthetical note: The only good excuse for "Why I can't use Ada and
>   > have to use C" that I've heard/used is this: "I have a C compiler for
>   > this Whozits Processor Board that came with the board. There is no Ada
>   > compiler and a port would cost too much/take too long/not have the whole
>   > kitten kaboodle of support tools I've got with the C compiler that came
>   > with this board."}
> 
>     How many times have I heard this, then turned around with a list
> of validated Ada compilers for that board, often with more than one
> for every RTOS under consideration.
> 
>     The main exceptions were Intel x86 boards without x87 chips, and
> TMS320C2x boards.
> --
> 
I was thinking more along the lines of some of the small controller
cards you can buy which are supplied with a C compiler and PC based
loading/eeprom-programming toolkit. Z-World is a good example where you
can buy one of their Z180 based boards with a development environment
for a few hundred bucks. Sure, someone *might* have a cross-compiler
targeting a Z180, but how much does it cost? Will it generate linked
images that will be compatible with the Z-World loader, eeprom burner
and debugger? Will you have to cobble some kind of development
environment & tools together to get the job done? At what point have I
spent more money and wasted more time trying to use Ada to gain whatever
benefits it offers than is economically justified? If I can buy the
board & development environment (in C) for $300-$400 and the programming
job is going to take 2 or 3 months, it's just not worth the $20,000 or
so I'd have to pay someone to provide an Ada port to the Z180. Not to
mention all the headaches & uncertainty about if it is going to work
with the rest of the environment.

We recently did a small rocket control that was based on some flavor of
68HC16 processor. It was built into an engine control that normally
operates a Dodge Neon. It was a proof of concept kind of job which
wasn't going to hang around very long. We pretty much did the job in
assembler and utilized some available home grown software with an
emulator pod & it's supplied software. I imagine we could have come up
with a way to do it in Ada, but the job was over in such a short span of
time and was on such a tight budget that it didn't make much sense to
try to go find an Ada compiler, etc. when we pretty much had the action
covered with what was at hand. (Do you know of a port of Ada to a 68HC16
that generates pure code, produces S-records and IEEE symbol tables? It
has to generate really efficient code, but if it does, we might be able
to use it in the next go-around.)

You get to use an RTOS? Some guys have all the luck! ;-)

MDC
-- 
Marin David Condic
Real Time & Embedded Systems, Propulsion Systems Analysis
United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney, Large Military Engines
M/S 731-95, P.O.B. 109600, West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600
Ph: 561.796.8997         Fx: 561.796.4669
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