More question about ADA for Mac

More question about ADA for Mac

[MZUNDO]

Since my original post a couple of weeks ago about an ADA compiler
for the Mac, I was suggested by a private e-mail to get via ftp
an ADA compiler named GW-Ada/Ed which is freeware (GNU) and do _include_
a _PowerMac_ version.

I got it but i haven't had the time to try, nevertheless the thing seems
interesting because it's freeware and not a commercial payware package as I
suppose (can anyone correct me?) is Meridian.

Has anybody worked with it? (the GW-Ada/Ed I mean) Any other comment ?

Thanks

Re: More question about ADA for Mac

[Michael Feldman]

In article <95038.185700MZUNDO@ESOC.BITNET>,  <MZUNDO@ESOC.BITNET> wrote:

[snip]

>Has anybody worked with it? (the GW-Ada/Ed I mean) Any other comment ?

I guess I could say I worked on it - I supervised the project.:-)

GW-Ada/Ed-Mac is indeed a compiler that runs on the Mac. There is now
indeed a PowerMac version, which means the compiler itself is compiled
for the PowerMac and so runs quite fast (compared to the 68k or
emulated version).

The core compiler and binder are NYU's Ada/Ed-C, which we ported to
the Mac. The hardest part was getting the C dialects right.:-)
The programming environment is Mac-like, roughly like what you'd
expect from a Symantec or MetroWorks shell.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the compiler produces code
for a hypothetical computer. In effect, Ada/Ed is a cross-compiler from
Ada to this "virtual machine" as its designers called it. The virtual
code is executed by a program called adaexec, that simulates the virtual
machine. Some have called this an "interpreter"; I prefer "simulator".

There is NO interface to the Mac toolbox. NYU left "hooks" in their
code to implement pragma Interface, and this works, sort of, on the
Unix version. The source code (Symantec/Metrowerks C) is available, 
so anyone wishing to try and activate the interface, to get a toolbox 
binding, is welcome to try.

So is GW-Ada/Ed what yuou are looking for? As a nice, friendly, free system
to learn Ada on a Mac, yes indeed. For serious Mac development, nope.

Next message will post yet another announcement of GW-Ada/Ed-Mac, with
ftp addresses, etc.

Mike Feldman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael B. Feldman -  chair, SIGAda Education Working Group
Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University -  Washington, DC 20052 USA
202-994-5919 (voice) - 202-994-0227 (fax) - mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
One, two, three ways an underdog: Ada fan, Mac fan, Old Liberal Democrat
------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Ada on the World-Wide Web: http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: More question about ADA for Mac

[Michael Feldman]

Updated Release of GW-Ada/Ed for Apple Macintosh
------------------------------------------------
December 1994

Prof. Michael B. Feldman
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-5919 (voice)
(202) 994-5296 (fax)
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet)

December 10 is the birth date of Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace,
assistant to Charles Babbage. Ada was born on this date in 1815,
and it is for her that the Ada programming language is named.

In celebration of Ada's birthday, and of the recent delivery of the
revised Ada standard to ISO headquarters for publication just after
the start of 1995, the Ada Educational Software Group at The George
Washington University, Washington, DC, is pleased to announce an  
updated release of GW-Ada/Ed-Mac, an Ada 83 development environment  
for Apple Macintosh computers.

ABOUT THE GW-Ada/Ed-Mac DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT 

GW-Ada/Ed-Mac is a development environment built around the New York
University (NYU) AdaEd compiler/interpreter. It allows the editing,
compiling, binding and execution of Ada 83 programs. GW-Ada/Ed-Mac was
supervised by Prof. Michael B. Feldman. Manuel A. Perez, a GWU doctoral
student in Computer Science, is responsible for the Macintosh version,
including the editor and developer shell. 

The December 1994 release is due mostly to Fabrizio Oddone, a known
shareware developer in Italy. This release changes nothing in the
functionality of the system. However compilation is speeded up by
a factor of anywhere from 4 to greater than 10. Further, Fabrizio's
work includes a version that will run on a PowerMac in native instead
of emulation mode. There is also a version for Mac-SE-class machines,
running System 7 with a 68000 processor.

ACQUIRING AND INSTALLING GW-Ada/Ed-Mac FROM AN FTP ARCHIVE 

GW-Ada/Ed-Mac can be acquired by anonymous ftp from these sources:

Public Ada Library, wuarchive.wustl.edu, 
  directory languages/ada/compiler/adaed/gwu/mac

George Washington University, ftp.gwu.edu, directory pub/ada/gw-adaed/mac.

You need to copy and download four files, in addition to readme.mac.
The first three are:

-rw-r--r--   1 mfeldman user      155782 Feb 28  1994 adaprogs.sea.hqx
-rw-r--r--   1 mfeldman user       24329 Feb 28  1994 readme.nyu
-rw-r--r--   1 mfeldman user       11182 Feb 28  1994 userman.mac

The first file is a set of demonstration programs; see below.
The second file is the original NYU document for Ada/Ed; you don't need it
to run this system, but it contains useful background information. The
last file is a brief user manual for GW-Ada/Ed-Mac; you can open it with
any ASCII editor or Word Processor; we recommend that you open it with the
GW-Ada/Ed-Mac editor, once you've installed the system.

The system itself is available in four versions; you need download only
the one that suits your needs:

-rw-r--r--   1 mfeldman user     1020301 Dec  8 18:15 gwada-se.sea.hqx
-rw-r--r--   1 mfeldman user     1052724 Dec  8 18:16 gwada68k.sea.hqx
-rw-r--r--   1 mfeldman user     1359029 Dec  8 18:19 gwadappc.sea.hqx
-rw-r--r--   1 mfeldman user     1817962 Dec  8 18:18 gwadafat.sea.hqx

gwada-se.sea.hqx is the version for a 68000 processor; gwada68k.sea.hqx
is the version for 68020, 68030, and 68040 processors; gwadappc.sea.hqx
is the native PowerMac version, and gwadafat.sea.hqx contains "fat" 
binaries that will run on either 68k or PPC machines. 

We are distributing these versions as separate archives to facilitate
redistribution on diskettes; note that all but the "fat" binaries will
fit on a single 1.4mb diskette.

The files gwada*.sea.hqx and adaprogs.sea.hqx are BinHex-ed
self-extracting Stuffit archives. Once you've downloaded the files to your
Mac, you need to use the BinHex utility program to un-encode them. BinHex
is a free program that you can pick up from any Mac archive or user group. 

We hope you enjoy using GW-Ada/Ed!

This program is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License. This program is
distributed in the hope that it will b e useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.