Re: [Announce] AVR-Ada V0.1 released

[rolf.ebert_nospam_@gmx.net (Rolf Ebert)]

"Jim Granville" <no.spam@designtools.co.nz> wrote in message news:<HobAb.11589$ws.1077937@news02.tsnz.net>...
> "Rolf Ebert" <rolf.ebert_nospam_@gmx.net> wrote in message
> news:46b8b50a.0312050448.654d6da4@posting.google.com...
> > We are proud to announce the first release of AVR-Ada, one of the first
> > GCC based Ada compilers targeting 8-bit microcontrolers.
> 
> Interesting.  I presume this outputs C, which is then compiled ?

No.  Like all other language front-ends in GCC, GNAT does directly
generate assembler code for the target processor.  All compilers in
GCC share the same code generator back end.

> How does this then handle symbolic debug in the AVR source, in (eg) AVR
> Studio ?

AVR studio up to V4.07 uses the old COFF format which is quite
limited.  Get the V4.08 beta and use the extended COFF format.  The
easiest is to use the WinAVR distribution (winavr.sourceforge.net) to
get used to GCC on Windows first.

> Is anyone working on Ada for 51MX core (FAR calls etc extensions, just
> starting to appear in FLASH),
> and/or perhaps for the 128KF/256KF 80C51variants from Winbond, Cygnal, STm
> ?
>  Of these, the ST and Cygnal devices have good In Circuit DEBUG support.
> 
> There was talk a while ago of Ada for the XA51, but that has only 2 flash
> models,
> with smallish code size and not a wide market base.
> 
> -jg

I do not know about Ada compilers for other processors.  In my project
I use the AVR AT90S2313 which has only 2kB of flash for program space
and 128 bytes RAM.  The generated Ada code isn't any bigger as the
equivalent C code.  You can write lots of useful programs with a good
compiler like gcc despite the size limitations.


    Rolf