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: 103376,80ba3207a644d932 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!feeder1-2.proxad.net!proxad.net!feeder1-1.proxad.net!feeder.news-service.com!news.astraweb.com!border1.a.newsrouter.astraweb.com!feeder2.cambrium.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!not-for-mail From: Ludovic Brenta Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Gnat, tasking, Vista References: <13pcv4e8914hq93@corp.supernews.com> <07c277b0-deb7-4e27-9e73-252df3fdadb0@v67g2000hse.googlegroups.com> <5vpjbgF1niougU1@mid.individual.net> Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:49:34 +0100 Message-ID: <87tzl4w9lt.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:eNCmxbjjt8t5idfIvcW57NcDF4U= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Tele2 X-Trace: DXC=IND5MhUl_Gj6oF<8YoFE@f6`Y6aWje^YjE3:>k?3l:bg1B4<]HH1:nch Alex R. Mosteo writes: > Ludovic Brenta wrote: > >> tmo...@acm.org wrote: >>> My understanding is that the current Gnat is not a 3.15p with >>> improvements, but is rather a substantially new thing, with new, >>> unknown, bugs. Is that a mis-understanding? >> >> IMHO your understanding is correct up to a point, but not for the >> current version of GCC (4.2.2) or the next version. >> >> When AdaCore merged GNAT into the GCC sources, a long period of >> instability ensued for the reasons you outline. I never considered >> versions 3.1, 3.2 or 3.3 production-worthy and this is where I agree >> with your understanding. However, 3.4 was OK. With version 4.0, a >> major change to the back-end ("tree-SSA") introduced some new bugs in >> the interface with the Ada front-end, but 4.1 was OK again and the Ada >> part of GCC has steadily improved since (i.e. no or very few >> regressions). I have a very good feeling about the upcoming GCC 4.3 >> because AdaCore and Sam Tardieu have recently fixed several dozen old >> bugs, most of which have been present since GNAT 3.15p or before. I >> anticipate that GCC 4.3 will be the best version of GCC ever as >> regards Ada. > > This is very interesting. In regard to Ada 2005 features, the improvement is > also noticeable. GPL 2006 bombed quite frequently, 2007 *much* less to the > point of being a rarity. The only big thing I'm waiting to be useable is > interfaces. I wonder about the amount of differences between the 2007 and > 4.x branches. AdaCore normally merge from GNAT Pro into GCC during Stage 1, and then do almost nothing during Stages 2 and 3 (only a few bug fixes in the middle-end and the back-end). That, however, changed for GCC 4.3 where many Ada bug fixes happened during Stage 3 and I think the two branches are now quite close. By looking at the timeline of GCC's development[1], one can establish a rough correspondence between GCC and GNAT GPL releases: GCC release | end of stage 1 | GNAT GPL release | release date -------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1 | 2005-04-25 | 2005 | 2005-09-15 4.2 | 2006-01-18 | 2006 | 2006-05-22 4.3 | 2007-01-20 | 2007 | 2007-05-11 The time between the end of Stage 1 and the final release of GCC is approximately one year: GCC release | release date | time since end of Stage 1 -------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.0 | 2006-02-28 | 10 mo 4.2.0 | 2007-05-13 | 14 mo 4.3.0 | ????-??-?? | 10 mo and counting This explains why GCC lags behind GNAT Pro and GNAT GPL in terms of Ada support. [1] http://gcc.gnu.org/develop.html#timeline -- Ludovic Brenta.