Re: Ada on Mac

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Martin Krischik wrote:
> Ludovic Brenta schrieb:
[...]
> > I think you misunderstood ryandesign's objection about the bootstrap
> > compiler. He doesn't say you should not need a bootstrap compiler; he
> > says that if you do, then the port must download and install the
> > bootstrap compiler automatically before building (re-read his last
> > sentence).
>
> I know and I thought about it - but and automated dmg/pkg installation
> of an >100MB package? And really one would need to deinstall the package
> afterwards.

Yes indeed, but this is only necessary for the first version of gnat.
Subsequent versions can rely on the previous version and not require
anything from MacAda anymore.

> > Also, it would be nice if you considered an entirely new port called
> > gnat43 which does require (and install) the MacAda compiler, but uses
> > the same sources as gcc43. This is what Debian does: gcj, gpc, gdc and
> > gnat are separate from gcc for this very reason.
>
> I did consider that - and it is my plan B. But it does feel like a fork.
> Note that MacPorts - unlike other package systems installs all GCC core
> languages (but ot Ada) with as one package. Probably due to the "gento"
>  source code based way of live.

I think the added build-dependency on a bootstrap compiler justifies a
fork of the build scripts, which you would maintain in parallel with
the "core" scripts and merge from them perdiodically. On the other
hand, you really want to build from the same upstream sources and the
same patches as the "core" gcc43. See [1] for an explanation of how
Debian achieves this.

[1] http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/gcccvs/branches/sid/gcc-4.3/debian/README.maintainers?op=file&rev=0&sc=0

--
Ludovic Brenta.