Re: How to configure GNAT GPL on x86-64 Linux for ARM ELF development

[JLotty <jlotspeich34@gmail.com>]

On Friday, May 25, 2018 at 11:06:41 PM UTC-6, Adam Jensen wrote:
> On Fri, 25 May 2018 10:50:07 +0000, Brian Drummond wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 25 May 2018 04:45:16 +0000, Adam Jensen wrote:
> > 
> >> Is it common for developers to create their own run-time system for
> >> embedded platforms? My inclination would be to look for hardware based
> >> on 1) RTS availability/quality and 2) toolkit complexity/completeness
> >> (completeness implies useful documentation).
> > 
> > Not common, no. But RTS availability (esp. SPARK RTS) has to start
> > somewhere, and for the MSP430 I didn't really develop one, just adapt
> > from AVR-Ada.
> > 
> > With remarkably little feedback on that project, I admit I've put
> > remarkably little effort into pushing it further. But I want it for my
> > own purposes, the watch is just a pretty by-product.
> 
> Super cool. Are your project's documents posted/hosted anywhere for 
> others to view and use? 
> 
> >> Given that, which seems like an obvious thing to do, I am surprised
> >> that Adacore does not have more apparent associations with hardware
> >> vendors where dev-kits and SBC products are promoted. I bought the
> >> Nucleo-144 board because I thought there was a BSP, RTS, and a
> >> tool-chain configuration tutorial. That turned out to be a bit of a
> >> mistake and generally a poor choice.
> > 
> > Not Adacore ... there isn't much hobbyist money for them, given their
> > business model. They do publicise occasional hobby-level projects like
> > Lego Mindstorms and Certyflie, but I don't see them making money off it.
> 
> They have the "Make with Ada" competition: 
> <https://www.makewithada.org/>
> 
> And the Adacore University:
> <http://university.adacore.com/>
> 
> If there is not a large vibrant community of people who understand and 
> use the technology it will fade and collapse. It seems like maybe they 
> recognize this but it doesn't seem like they know what to do. (Only an 
> idiot would have advertisers involved in technical communication). C'est 
> la vie.
>  
> > Meanwhile we have to support each other, perhaps your work on Nucleo can
> > feed back into Simon's RTS and expand its supported platforms.
> 
> The Nucleo-144 board was selected as a gentle starter kit to develop some 
> confidence and familiarity with the tool-chain and the work-flow. It was 
> a total failure in this role. However, I have been keeping notes and at 
> some point I might create a tutorial for Ada/Spark development on Ubuntu 
> x86_64 targeting the ARM MCU on a Nucleo-144 board. After that, I will 
> probably move to a platform with more resources. Eventually, I need a 
> processor coupled with an FPGA - the FPGA is where most of the hard real-
> time activity (traction with physics) should take place, IMO.

You might also look into these codebases:
https://github.com/lambourg/Ada_Bare_Metal_Demos
https://travis-ci.org/AdaCore/Ada_Drivers_Library

Both are supported by AdaCore and provide runtime systems for STM32F4 boards, as well as Raspberry Pi.  The STM33F4 is a fairly inexpensive board.  I would recommend beginning development on it to build confidence and learn the embedded Ada details, then begin porting to the Nucleo-144 board specifications as described in 

"Porting the Ada runtime to a new ARM board" 
<https://blog.adacore.com/porting-the-ada-runtime-to-a-new-arm-board> 

Both of these repositories worked out of the box for me on GNAT 2017.

James