Re: GNAT on Win 95

[griest-tom@cs.yale.edu (Tom Griest)]

Bob Crispen <revbob@EIGHT-BALL.HV.BOEING.COM> writes:
>progers@ACM.ORG sez:
>
?>>>Interestingly enough, what Lycos actually found for me was a link
?>>>to a Bob Crispen page thanking Tom Griest for his efforts with this
?>>>port. That's awfully considerate of you, Bob (although the background
?>>>with the hearts is most sickening). If I was Tom I'd be quite touched,
?>>>.....and quite happy that I live over a thousand miles away. :-)

PR>>Nah -- Tom's wife Laura has Bob beat easily.  No contest (and I
PR>>haven't even seen Bob:)

BC>You will be pleased to know that, yucky hearts aside, I am extremely
BC>cute.
BC>-----
BC>Getting serious for a moment, I think it's absolutely wonderful news
BC>for our community that Robert Dewar is saying they'll be coordinating
BC>a little better with LabTek.  In the past, it depended on what day you
BC>went to the Gnat site whether or not you'd even be let in on the
BC>existence of the LabTek Windows 95 port.  I appreciate (or at any
BC>rate, believe) that there are some financial interests involved.  This
BC>is an unselfish gesture, and I think it ought to be recognized and
BC>applauded.

We have been coordinating to some degree for quite a while now, 
with some success but it has also been less than perfect.
We are trying to address the issues to provide the best 
solution for GNAT users and to apply our talents in the most 
effective way.

BC>-----
BC>While I'm sort of on the same topic, I hope the relevant folks are
BC>paying attention to the Win32 API that's in the process of coming
BC>out, I believe through the Cygnus GnuWin32 folks.  There's an opportunity
BC>for some synergy here, I believe.  I apologize for not knowing the
BC>name of the author; this represents a tremendous amount of work.

I believe most of their GnuWin32 stuff was developed by Steve Chamberlain,
who I understand is recently no longer with Cygnus Support.  However, 
I guess someone by the name of Geoffrey Noer has taken over.
We have been communicating with them on a fairly regular basis,
(like last week) trying to share information whenever possible.  
Ultimately, we want to migrate to the Cygnus tools for Win32, but 
because they have not supported MS library formats, we have had to 
maintain our own port (which had been done prior to the Cygnus port).
We really want to be interoperable with all the MS tools.

There are several related efforts active, including the Win32Ada
bindings, GNAT, Cygnus, ASIS, IDE work, high-level win32 bindings,
C++ interfacing, Distributed Annex stuff, and a bunch of others.
You could spend all your time "coordinating" if you wanted to.
Still, with each release, the GNAT product line becomes more
sophisticated and more polished.  My hope is that we will
merge efforts whenever it makes sense to do so, to avoid
duplication of work and compatibility problems.

-Tom