Re: Increased Interest In Ada?

["Marin David Condic" <marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com>]

"Cesar Rabak" <csrabak@uol.com.br> wrote in message
news:3A95EDF6.8A132FE3@uol.com.br...
> Marin David Condic wrote:
> > useful experience. Providing such a simulation in Ada would certainly be
a
> > lot easier to achieve than finding an appropriate embedded target &
compiler
> > port.
>
> I disagree, but see below.
>
You disagree? Does this mean you know of a good Ada compiler targeted to an
inexpensive SBC that would fit the description? Or are you saying that
porting an Ada compiler to some SBC would be no big deal? In either case,
I'd definitely like to challenge you to verify this through demonstration.
:-)

> I don't know how is the situation in other parts of the world for this
> kind of products, but in this country (Brazil), usually the kits for
> this type of training are based in 8 bit microcontrollers. This IMHO
> will lead to the need of some kind of subset of Ada language, which
> ultimately may be counterproductive to original objective (spreading Ada
> IIRC).
>
Well the world has become a lot bigger than 8 bit microcontrollers. I am
currently working with a box that has a MIPS processor and almost the whole
system on a single chip. So a 32-bit processor able to control some
physical/electrical devices from a single board at an inexpensive price is
not at all out of the question. The problem is: Which One? If you are
familiar with embedded systems, I'm sure you know that there just aren't
thousands of Ada ports out there for popular boards/development kits. You
need the compiler, plus a good, powerful linker & cross-target debugger
along with probably some available libraries, bootstrap code, descent
documentation of everything, etc. Saying "Well GNAT has a port to chip X
available somewhere on the net..." is interesting, but if you don't have all
the pieces pulled together into a nicely integrated package that works
reliably, it wouldn't make a good student environment. (It's hard enough for
the pros to figure out how to get this sort of thing to work - how much
harder would it be for the neophytes? :-)

I'm always interested in hearing ideas on this topic if you have any.
Thanks.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/