Re: Writing a Mac Ada compiler

["Theodore E. Dennison" <dennison@escmail.orl.mmc.com>]

Mike White <ons116@twain.oit.umass.edu> wrote:
> Could anyone give me an idea of about how much of an effort it would be
> to write an Ada compiler for the mac/powermac (or if youve had similar
> experience on other computers...).  I am quite dismayed by the general

I would imagine most Ada compilers (even crappy ones) take at least 10
man-years
to complete. It really isn't a project for a single person. Yes, I have made
a start of it (on the late, great, Amiga). Completing the lexer alone would
have
taken me over a month. The parser? <shudder>

> lack of Ada support on the mac and I figure others are too.  I have heard of
> compilers being ported to the mac, but a) I'd rather not wait and
> b) I imagine it would be quite a learning experience.  Call me crazy.
You're crazy.
> Anyways, would it be MUCH more difficult to write an ada 9x compiler
> than ada83?

Uhh, unless I'm mistaken, GNAT is available for the MAC. If it doesn't exist
for
the MAC, porting it WOULD be a job one person could accomplish. You might want
to consider that instead of building your own from scratch.

If you really want to build your own compiler as an exercise, why not try 
something smaller?

Good luck, and I'm sorry I was so negative.
T.E.D.