Re: Ada to C Translator

[Tucker Taft <stt@averstar.com>]

Mike K wrote:
> 
> Question to the group:
> 
> I have a requirment to convert and application written in ada to c. Can anyone
> provide me insight as to any ada to c translators available?

AverStar has a variant of our AdaMagic front end that uses
optimized ANSI C as its intermediate representation.  We make
this technology available in 2 ways:

   1) As an Ada compiler for a target that has a reasonable ANSI C
      compiler, where you maintain the Ada source code, and the
      fact that it generates C as an intermediate is not terribly
      important, though it may allow you to use a C debugger to
      debug pretty much at the Ada source code level (we generate
      appropriate "#line" directives for this purpose).

   2) As a translator from Ada to C, where the generated C source
      carries over the structure, comments, names, etc. from the Ada
      program in so far as possible.  This is available only as a service
      on a per-line basis, primarily for packaging reasons, but in part
      also for business reasons.  We can take advantage of certain C++
      features (e.g. namespaces) if desired.

      The intent in this approach is that the translation is essentially
      a one-time process, and you edit and maintain the generated C source.
      Note that although we can retain all the run-time checks in
      the generated source, most users request we turn this off so the C code
      is more "typical."  Furthermore, once you start editing the C
      code, you are definitely sacrificing all the compile-time and
      run-time checking provided by Ada.  So you need a pretty
      compelling justification to take this second route if you care
      at all about the kind of automatic consistency checks that Ada
      provides.

Please contact us if either of these approaches would be of interest to
you.

> 
> Mike

-- 
-Tucker Taft   stt@averstar.com   http://www.averstar.com/~stt/
Technical Director, Commercial Division, AverStar (formerly Intermetrics)
(http://www.averstar.com/services/IT_consulting.html)  Burlington, MA  USA