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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,88ed72d98e6b3457 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-10-09 20:09:05 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!wn14feed!wn13feed!wn11feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi.com!rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F8622B3.4080305@comcast.net> From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Standard Library Interest? References: <3F803278.1020507@noplace.com> <3F82213C.4070009@comcast.net> <3F847A71.8000003@comcast.net> <3F855B34.7050101@noplace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.34.139.183 X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-Trace: rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net 1065755345 24.34.139.183 (Fri, 10 Oct 2003 03:09:05 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 03:09:05 GMT Organization: Comcast Online Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 03:09:05 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:570 Date: 2003-10-10T03:09:05+00:00 List-Id: 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