Re: Nontrivial examples of C interface with Ada

["Marin D. Condic" <mcondic-nospam@quadruscorp.com>]

tmoran@bix.com wrote:
>   Take a look at www.adapower.com in the list under "Win32 bindings".
> Clearly several of those are what you would call subsystems, not bindings.
> I suggest we adopt the idea of R-values of insulation thickness.  Then an
> R-1 binding is Ada syntax, acceptable to an Ada compiler, but C in spirit,
> ie, pass pointers, return flags, etc.  I'd say an R-4 binding has
> exceptions and types, but still a 1-1 map between C functions and Ada
> procedures.  I'd call CLAW an R-15, say, because it does indeed insulate
> you from many of the characteristics of the C API, but still follows the
> general outline.  In particular, your program built with CLAW will have
> the "look and feel" of a Windows program to its users.  A platform
> independent "subsystem", eg GtkAda or Tcl/Tk, would be labeled R-50 - you
> have an internal environment that is almost totally independent of the
> external environment.

O.K. I think we agree on concept at least. Something that maps
one-for-one is a different animal than something which has a high level
of insulation and portability. There are two questions: When does it
stop being a difference in degree and start being a difference in kind?
What name do you want to call it when it starts being a difference in
kind? (is a relational database just a "binding" to the OS file system
only with a higher level of insulation?)

Somehow, the concept of "binding" to me seems like it ought to be a
one-for-one kind of "parallel" thing. If it starts abstracting from
there, maybe it should have a different name. Where did I leave my
thesaurus? :-)
-- 
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Marin David Condic - Quadrus Corporation - http://www.quadruscorp.com/
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