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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,95d036084078aa89 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: fjh@cs.mu.oz.au (Fergus Henderson) Subject: Re: Compiling, binding, and linking an Ada prog. interfaced with C Date: 1998/08/02 Message-ID: <6q26p7$3ad$1@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 377241045 References: <1998072706002200.CAA02664@ladder01.news.aol.com> <35BD28BF.A5B@atlas.otago.ac.nz> <6pn02g$2ue$1@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> Organization: Computer Science, The University of Melbourne Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-08-02T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus) writes: >fjh@cs.mu.oz.au (Fergus Henderson) writes: > > > This is one respect in which Ada's otherwise excellent C interface > > features are not quite as good as those of Mercury or ISE Eiffel, > > which both allow you to import C macros without having to write a > > separate C file containing glue code. > > Huh? The Ada way to imitate C in this area is to run the C >preprocessor over your code and live with the result no matter how >bizarre, just like it works in C. I don't see how that technique could work as a method for interfacing to existing C code, because typical C header files contain (in addition to the macros that you want to interface with) lots of C declarations which would not be valid Ada syntax. Furthermore it would have the following problem that you mention yourself: >Of course, if you have C macros >that actually generate C source, then you can only use those inside >units written in C. Indeed. And so trying to use them in Ada source files would be at best a violation of encapsulation, and more likely simply wouldn't work. Even simple things like hexadecimal and octal constants would be a problem. -- Fergus Henderson | "I have always known that the pursuit WWW: | of excellence is a lethal habit" PGP: finger fjh@128.250.37.3 | -- the last words of T. S. Garp.