Re: Standard Library Interest?

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@comcast.net>]

Marin David Condic wrote:
> Absolutely! Yeah Verrily! Amen!

> If Ada wants some kind of math library and "BLAS" is the math library to 
> have, then Ada ought to implement BLAS - and maybe even take it in new 
> directions providing *more* value to the end user. (I believe the term 
> is "Embrace and Extend" ;-) Otherwise the BLAS afficianados don't have 
> much reason to select Ada as their language of implementation.

No, I don't want anyone to rewrite BLAS in Ada.  There should be a 
"thick" binding on top of the BLAS libraries so that the users never 
have to deal with the idiosyncracies of Fortran.  But converting the 
libraries to Adatran wouldn't accomplish anything other than to waste 
money.  As long as the vendors provide a good BLAS implementation 
(probably built by ATLAS) or in the case of GNAT, possibly tell you how 
to build a tuned version for your system as a part of building GNAT, 
then the user need never to know how to invoke the Fortran compiler. 
(And the Ada binding will probably include any necessary linker directives.)

-- 
                                                     Robert I. Eachus

"Quality is the Buddha. Quality is scientific reality. Quality is the 
goal of Art. It remains to work these concepts into a practical, 
down-to-earth context, and for this there is nothing more practical or 
down-to-earth than what I have been talking about all along...the repair 
of an old motorcycle."  -- from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle 
Maintenance by Robert Pirsig