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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,cec20777e0d41ea0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-03-17 01:38:53 PST Path: nntp.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!crtntx1-snh1.gtei.net!cambridge1-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!inmet!not-for-mail From: Tucker Taft Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Increased Interest In Ada? Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 13:37:12 -0500 Organization: AverStar (formerly Intermetrics) Burlington, MA USA Message-ID: <3AB10BD8.8B4A8E9A@averstar.com> References: <3A82EFA2.C8756B09@acm.org> <970ma1$1l7$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <98inu2$1fr$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <98kjgv$3j69@news.kvaerner.com> <98lc03$23l$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3AAED3D6.79CEAA7F@acm.org> <3AAFE454.B079E0F1@averstar.com> <98op0t$c4g$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3AB0E994.A2B2D3C6@averstar.com> <98r13a$6k9$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: nebula.burl.averstar.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: inmet2.burl.averstar.com 984681432 17166 141.199.8.77 (15 Mar 2001 18:37:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@inmet2.burl.averstar.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 15 Mar 2001 18:37:12 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (X11; U; SunOS 5.7 sun4u) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: nntp.stanford.edu comp.lang.ada:91494 Date: 2001-03-15T18:37:12+00:00 List-Id: Marin David Condic wrote: > > Sounds interesting. Obviously, if the programmer doesn't see the C > intermediary steps and just gets code out the back end, then its just > another Ada compiler. However, I'd still have concerns about gluing it onto > someone's embedded C development environment because of the post-compilation > stuff. You need to play with the linkage editor & loader and it remains a > question in my mind if that is just going to invisibly look like Ada or if > you're going to need to treat it more from the intermediate C perspective. There is an "adabuild" linker that does whatever automatic recompilation is required, builds a "main" routine (which elaborates the appropriate library units and calls the Ada main and then the library-level finalizer), and then invokes the target linker to finish the job. It works exactly like the versions of our compiler that don't use C from the user's perspective. > After that, you've got to deal with the possible existence of source-level > debuggers and other testing tools. Are these going to see the Ada code - or > go referencing back to the C code? These see the Ada source (unless you explicitly specify otherwise) thanks to the "#line" directives included in the generated C source code. Ada variable names are carried over into the C in a canonical form (first letter capitalized, all others lower case), which may take some getting used-to, though if you have a debugger that shows the local variables, they can easily be picked out. > > I am not saying it can't be done or that doing it may not be of value. What > I'm saying is that it would likely require quite a bit of investigation just > to see what would be involved in doing the job and what quality the finished > product would have. After that there is certainly a non-trivial amount of > work in pulling the pieces together. If I was actively using the Z-World > board and familiar with its development environment, a lot of the assessment > would be already in my head. Without a funded mandate to go forth and kill, > its hard to justify the time committment. :-) It certainly is not just like falling off a log, but it isn't rocket science either... > > If we had a vendor interested in adding Ada as an additional front-end and > was willing to pay to merge the tools, that would really be something. > Unless I can talk my current employers into programming Cable-TV boxes in > Ada, I'm not likely to find the time to look into it. (Work is the curse of > the Language Advocate? :-) Time is the one commodity whose price never drops... > > MDC > -- > Marin David Condic > Senior Software Engineer > Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com > Enabling the digital revolution > e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com > Web: http://www.mcondic.com/ -- -Tucker Taft stt@avercom.net http://www.averstar.com/~stt/ Chief Technology Officer, AverCom Corporation (A Titan Company) Burlington, MA USA (AverCom was formerly the Commercial Division of AverStar: http://www.averstar.com/services/ebusiness_applications.html)