Re: Compiling GNAT GPL 2006 into GCC 4.1.1

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

deadlyhead writes:
> Alright, I'm browsing through gnuada.sourceforge.net (great link!
> thanks!), but just so I don't get lost, you're saying that AdaCore
> routinely sends patches for the latest GNAT into GCC SVN?  Are we
> talking active integration, then, of the Ada 2005/2006 standard into
> GCC 4.2.x?  That's encouraging, and I wouldn't feel so bad about using
> different compilers for the time being if an integrated GCC/GNAT-2006
> is on the horizon.

Yes, AdaCore merge their sources into the FSF's Subversion repository,
but they don't do it exactly "routinely".  They only merge their
changes during the Stage 1 of the development process, when all
changes are allowed.  During Stage 2, only bug fixes are allowed; they
don't normally have many of those.  During Stage 3, only
release-critical bug fixes (i.e. those for regressions and wrong-code
bugs) are allowed, and Ada bugs are specifically considered never to
be release-critical.

As a consequence, you usually see a large batch of patches in close
succession, during only a couple of months, just after the creation of
a release branch.  The latest such merge happened in january-february
2006 for GCC 4.2.  You can browse the gcc-patches mailing list
archives on http://gcc.gnu.org to see these patches.  The release
branch for 4.2 is still some months away.  After that, I anticipate to
see another slew of patches from AdaCore.

> You bring up an interesting course of action as well.  As much as I
> hate C/C++, I know I need to improve my skills working with them, and
> what better way to accomplish this than hacking on the compiler itself?

The C++ front-end is written in C :) but the Ada front-end is written
in Ada.

> Maybe jumping into GCC 4.2 wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Indeed.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.