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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,3e26dfa741e64e5f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.scarlet.biz!news.scarlet.biz.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 11:16:00 -0500 From: Ludovic Brenta Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is now available References: <432919be$0$10539$4d4eb98e@read.news.fr.uu.net> <1126773856.876636.265130@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1126794444.071827.191320@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> <877jdecrhj.fsf@mid.deneb.enyo.de> Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 18:15:34 +0200 Message-ID: <877jde2vyx.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110004 (No Gnus v0.4) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:1n4LNQRo2MIj1NeHq5aZimqVf44= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii NNTP-Posting-Host: 83.134.243.156 X-Trace: sv3-HEQrNtAZjJu6b2WLtxDtNfL3Ec4dDnbKm0KuXGVbfQirCyYlkvI8e2aD4rVNDgwFHB53QkCW4FOskR/!ihxEbtI3iHu70846z4HQlefeo+b0Q+3TTXCvM6OrsGks+v/1EhQs3XBdPP//7M2mfrJn1Dhp/+8= X-Complaints-To: abuse@scarlet.be X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@scarlet.biz X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.32 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:4869 Date: 2005-09-18T18:15:34+02:00 List-Id: Florian Weimer writes: > * Ludovic Brenta: > >> OK, here are the votes so far. There are four contenders for the >> title of "next Ada compiler for Debian": GNAT GPL 2005 Edition >> (gnat-gpl below), gnat-3.4, gnat-4.0 and gnat-3.4+patches backported >> from gnat-gpl. > > How does the new GNAT compiler behave from a technical point of > view? Is it better than the GCC 3.4 one? Comparable to GNAT 3.15p? > Will there be regular releases from now on, incorporating bug fixes? > > I don't think I'll have answers to those questions by next > Tuesday. 8-( Good point. I have a more new data items from Matthias Klose, the main GCC maintainer in Debian. * The target release date for Debian Etch is 18 months after Sarge, i.e. December 2006. * It is likely that Debian Etch will switch again from GCC 4.0 to GCC 4.1, after 4.1 is released, and if 4.1 proves good enough. The C++ ABI will not (should not) change, so the transition should be much smoother than the current transition from 3.4 to 4.0 (which is already quite smooth). * If Debian Etch moves to GCC 4.1, then GCC 4.0 will be dropped. GCC 3.4 will be kept, because the upstream maintainers of Fortran recommend shipping g77 (a Fortran 77 front-end and run-time library), which has been replaced in 4.0 by gfortran (Fortran 95), which is new and has incompatibilities. * Whichever compiler is chosen for Etch (be it 4.0 or 4.1) will be frozen one month before the rest of Debian. The plan is to freeze Debian for a couple of months before release. This means that the compiler (and binutils and glibc) will probably be frozen in September 2006, and the rest of Debian in October 2006. Nothing is 100% certain at this point, except that there is no hurry to decide on a definitive Ada compiler for Debian Etch. However, I sense that some people are in a hurry to move away from gnat 3.15p. Am I correct in this? I encourage people to investigate the relative technical merits of the contenders. Most votes so far have ignored this issue altogether, which is bad (IMHO). If some people need more time, then I won't close the vote on tuesday, but OTOH I'd like to reach some kind of decision and then stick to it. BTW, how many people here use gnat-3.4 or gnat-4.0 regularly? Any success or horror stories you might want to share? And here is more food for thought: If gnat-3.4 is chosen, its future availability in Etch is guaranteed, so I can start a transition of the existing Debian packages soon (e.g. October-November 2005). No matter what, this transition will take time and effort on my part. If gnat-4.0 is chosen, then I'll probably wait until Matthias and the Debian GCC maintainers decide on whether or not to move to 4.1, and only then will I start the transition. This places the transition in the May-June 2006 timeframe. None of the above affects Sarge users; only users of Etch or Sid, the unstable, bleeding-edge branch of Debian. -- Ludovic Brenta.