Re: Ada in Embedded Systems Programming.

[dennison@romulus23.DAB.GE.COM (Ted Dennison)]

In article <38orsv$1sv@siberia.gatech.edu>, jmills@ccrf-news.gatech.edu (John M. Mills) writes:
|> I believe the "all or nothing" approach to Ada's design has shut it out of
|> a lot of this class of applications, quite aside from Ada's other qualities

There are a TON of validated Ada cross-compilers. I have done an embedded 
project in Ada, with no real problems. I think there is a lot more embedded
Ada programming than you may be aware of. 

So what is the problem with Ada for embedded applications?

|> as a development language: by that, I mean that I am unaware of
|> a compiler which would target (say) an 8051, following code development and

Well, a quick search through the list of validated compilers confirms your 
suspicions; I couldn't find any validated 8051 cross compiler. The 8051 is WAY
obsolete though. Nonetheless, I'm sure someone will port GNAT to it if there is
any kind of demand.

|> analysis on a larger platform.  I'm afraid I consider the common "Show me a
|> design that couldn't be done in Ada" response to be foolish and immaterial if
|> the application environment can't accept the targets which Ada compilers can
|> support.  The Riehle article mentions some [Ada legal] suppressions which
|> enable them to target a 64Kw memory space.  In retrospect, more elaborate
|> switches to turn Ada language features on and off might have been a good
|> design approach.
|> 

Cross compiler vendors commonly use a reduced version of the the Ada runtime
(eg: no tasking or dynamic memory allocation/deallocation). Is this the kind
of thing you are thinking of?

T.E.D.