Re: Ada "library only" compiler ?

[Pascal Obry <pascal@obry.net>]

Randy,

>> On Windows you interface to fopen() as done on
>> UNIXes I suppose or maybe to an even higher level using OpenFile().
> 
> Definitely not. We directly use the Win32 APIs for file functions (and there 
> is not one called fopen). The Win32 API is called "CreateFile", and it is 
> nothing much like the one from Unix or the one for C.

So that's more a Definitely yes, OpenFile() is a Win32 API call too.

> We have out own abstraction package (called "Basic_IO") that abstracts the 
> underlying I/O facilities. Remember, we started out on CP/M and MS-DOS 1.0, 
> neither of which had anything remotely like the Unix file operations.
> 
> As I mentioned, we don't use any code written in C in our compiler; it's all 
> written in Ada or assembler. And we directly interface to the lowest-level 
> APIs that the OS defines - Win32 for 32-bit Windows.

Depending on your view, the Win32 API is not the lowest API on windows
to me. Anyway, what you are describing is exactly what is done in GNAT
(and I know pretty well this part!). But looks like you've changed your
arguments, it was about DLL better that interfacing to C. That's what I
was having difficulty to understand. Now you are talking API (be it
Win32 or libc or whatever OS level API) and that's ok to me.

I said:

   Interfacing to a DLL is just like interfacing to C or whatever.

And I still stand on it. DLL is a container, nothing to do with an API.

Pascal.

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