Re: Compiler implementation of speciallized needs annexes.

[Tucker Taft <stt@averstar.com>]

Robert T. Sagris wrote:
> 
> I was wondering why only GNAT implements all of the specialized needs
> annex's. All of the other vendors I looked into implement A, B
> as they are required. C and D are also generally implemented by
> everyone. Rational also implements G.
> 
> Is this do to a lack of customer demand for these features or is it
> something else?

Annexes C and D provide functionality in the real-time and
system programming domain, which almost all user's of cross-compilers
need.  The other annexes are more "specialized," and as such,
a critical mass of demand hasn't yet built up for them sufficient
to entice other vendors to implement them.  However, with the
increasing interest in distributed component-based systems, even
among the real-time crowd, I would expect at least the distributed
annex to become more widely implemented.  On the other hand,
Ada/Corba is a viable alternative (e.g. ORBExpress/Ada from Objective
Interface Systems), so that may have reduced the pressure for
the distributed annex.

I would also suspect that the safety-critical annex will be or
is already supported by a number of vendors, even if they
haven't validated against the Annex H tests.
> 
> I was just wondering
> 
> Robbi Sagris

-- 
-Tucker Taft   stt@averstar.com   http://www.averstar.com/~stt/
Technical Director, Distributed IT Solutions  (www.averstar.com/tools)
AverStar (formerly Intermetrics, Inc.)   Burlington, MA  USA