Re: Ravenscar-compliant bounded buffer

[Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@nospam.please>]

anon wrote:

> And the GNU/GPL GNAT Ada is just a frontend compiler to the GCC.  If 
> you look at the source code "Back_end.adb" you will see a link to a C 
> coded procedure called gigi (gnat-to-gcc) which calls the C "Run-Time" 
> compiler. The C "Run-Time" compiler then converts the GNAT C 
> generated code to the object modules.

Saying that GNAT generates C code is nonsense, as you have been 
answered earlier on this newsgroup. The GU Compiler Collection has 
a common internal program representation that interfaces the front 
ends to the back end, but this representation is not C.

> For GNAT and most other Ada systems there is no Ada only "Run-Time 
> System".

That does not agree with my experience. Two of the three Ada 
systems for embedded platforms that I have used have had their own 
Ada RTS: TLD Ada and XGC Ada. XGC Ada is based on the GNAT compiler 
but has its own kernel and libraries (mostly written in Ada, too, 
as far as I remember).

The third compiler was DEC Ada. I used it for applications on a 
microVAX under VMS but as I remember it could also create programs 
to run on a simpler real-time kernel called VAXELN. I think VAXELN 
was not written in Ada and could also be used from other languages. 
And why not.

Then there is the Open Ravenscar Kernel ORK for GNAT, 
http://polaris.dit.upm.es/~ork/, also written in Ada.

For general (workstation, server) platforms of course Ada vendors 
do the sensible thing and connect to the existing OS interfaces, in 
most cases designed for C as the lowest common denominator.

There have been full-Ada systems even outside the embedded domain. 
Long ago, when Nokia (yes, the mobile phone company) was selling 
computers they developed a 32-bit system called MPS10 to compete 
with VAXes for data processing applications. The software, 
including the OS and database system, was in Ada.

-- 
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
       .      @       .