From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.36.28.135 with SMTP id c129mr2420097itc.6.1519927454737; Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:04:14 -0800 (PST) X-Received: by 10.157.32.3 with SMTP id n3mr130074ota.12.1519927454605; Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:04:14 -0800 (PST) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!border1.nntp.ams1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!peer01.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer01.am4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!peer02.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!e10no604076itf.0!news-out.google.com!a2ni3402ite.0!nntp.google.com!w142no1180138ita.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2018 10:04:14 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <11be6e36-7041-4346-859e-876f0a19ee6b@googlegroups.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=76.113.16.86; posting-account=lJ3JNwoAAAAQfH3VV9vttJLkThaxtTfC NNTP-Posting-Host: 76.113.16.86 References: <5a8e17dc-1d52-4393-be58-8881e741c3a4@googlegroups.com> <1190543753.541369961.154390.laguest-archeia.com@nntp.aioe.org> <6700ecea-cdfe-4c73-88ec-d98bafd9151b@googlegroups.com> <1288175616.541375784.664064.laguest-archeia.com@nntp.aioe.org> <2babf92b-161e-4e59-9877-6de5466a6683@googlegroups.com> <95718cf6-c89c-4fb9-bd6a-5abb1146124e@googlegroups.com> <11be6e36-7041-4346-859e-876f0a19ee6b@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <5b6d496b-a375-41c7-bac6-01a1b20c3137@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Embeddinator-4000 begetting an Ada-cross-platform future? From: Shark8 Injection-Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2018 18:04:14 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Received-Bytes: 4247 X-Received-Body-CRC: 189725996 Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:50759 Date: 2018-03-01T10:04:14-08:00 List-Id: On Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 12:20:49 PM UTC-7, Dan'l Miller wrote: > Lucretia wrote: > > Another closed, i.e. proprietary, compiler isn't going to help Ada, ano= ther free one will.=20 >=20 > Anyone can have another open-source Ada compiler whenever so desire: > 1) Fork the FSF copy, so as to (apparently?) have the proper license. Why? This will inherit *ALL* of GNAT's flaws and limitations. > 2) Put an LLVM backend on it. Either modernize Dragon Egg itself or conc= eptually repeat the entirety of Dragon Egg's old work differently in a more= -modern release of GNAT and GCC. You could do that with a non-GCC compiler. > 3) Indeed, even ASIS it to semi-automatedly drastically refactor/overhaul= the Ada code in which GNAT is written. Even do this gratuitously for no r= eason to inhibit merging it back into FSF easily (unless someone else devel= ops the anti-refactorer to recursively unwind the deeply-accumulated diverg= ent ASIS-assisted refactorings). This seems a bit convoluted; I'm not sure I get your meaning, or purpose he= re. > 4) Always contribute all such evolution in GPL-compliant ways, such as on= GitHub. *SIGH* -- There's the start of a MIT-licensed compiler, Byron, I have on Gi= tHub. -- https://github.com/OneWingedShark/Byron -- but there's only one co= ntributor. > 5) Go merrily on your way, never looking back at FSF (or at AdaCore). Why even look to them to begin with? > The big problem is never begetting the open-source repository itself for = a 2nd open-source Ada compiler. Objectively false; see above. The big problem is that there's only one contributor, and he's disgusted wi= th his lack of progress. > The big problem is how to fund an open-source business model. (Hence, wh= y closed-source business models arise for entirely-different not-GPLed sour= ce-code bases.) Not really -- there's plenty that can be done with (a) support contracts, a= nd/or (b) specialized/additional tooling. > Conversely, I would pay relatively-small-but-still-substantial amounts of= money (less than $1000 per year per seat) for a proprietary closed-source = Ada toolchain so that I could write both nonportable/SDK-specific UI/UX and= portable backend-processing libraries all in Ada on iOS, MacOS, and Androi= d. =20 Turbo Pascal proved that a company could thrive by targeting small-business= es and hobbyists with relatively cheap compilers.