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: 103376,85034d1ac78a66eb X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-02-22 22:10:46 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!wn2feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.204!attbi_feed4!attbi.com!rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3C773239.1116A8CB@attbi.com> From: Mark Biggar X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en]C-{C-UDP; EBM-SONY1} (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada Operating System References: <5Tzc8.111999$H37.15018616@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com> <3C73F480.5010806@mail.com> <9ff447f2.0202220108.7f14c9bc@posting.google.com> <9ff447f2.0202222044.78c44b25@posting.google.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.235.88.57 X-Complaints-To: abuse@attbi.com X-Trace: rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net 1014444645 12.235.88.57 (Sat, 23 Feb 2002 06:10:45 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 06:10:45 GMT Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 06:10:45 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:20285 Date: 2002-02-23T06:10:45+00:00 List-Id: Adrian Hoe wrote: > Sometime ago, I was thrown a question while giving talks in > Universities. "What language do they use to build the Ada compiler?" > and an (assumed) answer from the audience was "C". Then raised another > question: "If Ada has many safety features that C does not have and > the Ada compiler was written in C, how exactly safe is Ada?" > > I know there is ACVC test suite out there to certify Ada compilers > before they reach out the market. But then, why still use C to write > an Ada compiler? Gnat is based on the GNU C/C++ compiler suite and uses the already existing backend optimizer/code generator virtually unchanged. The Gnat front end is written in Ada. So, it's not a matter of writing part of the Ada compiler in C is more a matter of not bothering to rewrite the already existing parts in Ada. -- Mark Biggar mark.a.biggar@attbi.com