Re: C to JVM, time to revive JGNAT?

[Georg Bauhaus <bauhaus@futureapps.de>]

Björn Persson wrote:
> Georg Bauhaus wrote:
>> I wonder what programs you have in mind. Certainly C and Ada
>> are both not the language of choice for smart phone user
>> programs?
> 
> Are you trying to demonstrate that Java runs on more platforms than Ada? 
> Otherwise I don't understand what you're after.

I'm not after the number of platforms. There aren't that
many JVMs.
I'm after the programs that I can write by combining the powers
of Ada and everything readily available with a JVM target. 


>> What kind of Java style programs can you write with just LRM Ada?
> 
> What do you mean with "Java style"?

I mean the kind of programs I had hoped to imply by
mentioning smart phones, that is, mass products,
perhaps GPS receivers etc..
And for example enterprise services software.
The JVM is an industry standard in some industries.
The cross language inheritance of "Ada classes" and
"Java classes" is spectacularly transparent.

Translators for some other language also produce J-code,
but they just ignore the OO-module property of .class
files (note the word "class"). They use wrappers and
produce classes at random that cannot be used by other
programs.  Even though the source language is an OO
language.

What good is it neglecting the standards of some industries
by saying, mine could better, when in fact it is really time
consuming if at all possible to knit together similar
solutions?  And when you could just hook into this part
of software production by having your Ada compiler produce
class files?  (Is anyone questioning the MGNAT effort btw?
It's almost the same thing, even when Microsoft's VM has
a number of additional facilities when compared to Sun's
older VM.)

I also mean the programs written in Java now that use all kinds of
Java language restrictions and annotations. Some of these
"Java enhancements" might be plain unnecessary when Ada is the
source language for the JVM platform. Ada might already
have the needed features.

As another example, writing an Eclipse plugin using Ada is
probably easier when the compiler produces .class files
that are of the kind expected in a Java environment.