From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1d52a75fd633fefc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-02-15 21:05:39 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!news.gv.tsc.tdk.com!falcon.america.net!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!howland.erols.net!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!news.mindspring.net!not-for-mail From: Lao Xiao Hai Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada to C++ translator? Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 20:59:42 -0800 Organization: AdaWorks Software Engineering Message-ID: <3A8CB3BE.B4DAB0BE@ix.netcom.com> References: <3A8C6843.B46006D6@lmco.com> Reply-To: richard@adaworks.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 3f.35.af.f9 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 16 Feb 2001 05:02:58 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:5294 Date: 2001-02-16T05:02:58+00:00 List-Id: tmoran@acm.org wrote: > >We are re-using code from a legacy system, and we have spent a lot of > >effort on binding this legacy Ada code to the RTOS we are using. > I don't quite understand the situation: You had N lines of Ada running, > using an old RTOS, and now you are moving to a new RTOS and finding there > were M system calls that need changing, and M is a painfully large number. > The proposal is to convert to C/C++, which saves writing "pragma Import" > etc for the system calls. [snipped the rest of Tom's message ... ] This is not an uncommon with Ada 95. We have several clients using RTOS's that were supported under Ada 83 but are not supported with Ada 95. In particular, the newer version of the RTOS is not supported under Ada 95 and may be awkward, at best, trying to execute the older Ada 83 code. For some of these RTOS (e.g., HP-RT), the developers have few options except C or C++. There simply is no Ada 95 available for the platform. In the HP-RT example, Alsys, the original Ada compiler publisher is gone and its successor, Aonix, has no economic incentive to upgrade the compiler to Ada 95 for the new RTOS. With the abrogation of the Ada "mandate" there are quite a few of these unsupported platforms for Ada 95. Since the DoD contractor is not required to use Ada, they have no incentive to purchase a compiler. Since they have not incentive to purchase a compiler, the compiler publisher has no incentive to produce a compiler. This is especially true for those small, seldom used platforms that are so specialized that the market is lean for them. We have a lot of specialized military computers still in service (and being upgraded) for which is little likelihood of there ever being an Ada 95 compiler. There ought to be since these are often safety-critical. However, many DoD program managers have concluded that Ada is no longer relevant. With this kind of stupidity on the increase, compiler publishers are forced to take the path of best ROI. Richard Riehle