Re: Gnat cross-compiler for m68k, PowerPc

[Samuel Tardieu <sam@rfc1149.net>]

>>>>> "David" == David Brown <david@no.westcontrol.spam.com> writes:

David> I'm not expecting to use any OS on the systems -although it
David> might be interesting to try RTEMS, I'd also like to be able to
David> build Ada programs that are not dependant on any OS.

Back in 1996-1998, our team used RTEMS + GNAT on a Motorola 68360
(quite similar to the 68332 you are thinking of) robot and it was a
great success. Both GNAT and RTEMS performed very well.

David> Out of curiosity, is Ada practical for smaller chips?  We also
David> use the msp430 (16-bit) and the avr (8-bit), both of which have
David> gcc ports.  Is it realistic to use Ada for these chips?  A
David> serious RTOS like RTEMS is certainly out of the question here.

Even if other persons will say it fits well, I would personally
recommend against using Ada on the smallest devices, as you may easily
get frustrated by the tiny amount of code you will be able to put on
board (the same holds for C). If you have to use a smaller processor,
you may feel more comfortable with a language such as Forth which is
closer to the metal and lets you use all the (low) power available (at
the expense of not having all the nice Ada features such as type
checking).

  Sam
-- 
Samuel Tardieu -- sam@rfc1149.net -- http://www.rfc1149.net/sam