Re: Increased Interest In Ada?

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

I'm not sure I'd want to address that particular SBC - it was only an
example of the fact that there *are* inexpensive SBCs out there suitable for
a lot of things. They just typically come with some version of a C compiler
rather than an Ada compiler.

Targeting an Ada compiler to the Z-World products may or may not be a good
thing. It depends on lots of things - including how "standard" their C
compiler is and how popular their board is. Without buying the kit & working
with it for some stretch of time, its hard to say if it would be a good
target for such an effort.

Personally, I think it would be a *better* idea to have a native Ada
compiler that produced embedable code for some processor, then find an SBC
that used that processor. Gluing an Ada-toC-to-Embedded-Code thing together
is just going to ask for trouble and raise the inevitable question of "Why
don't I just use C, instead of going through all the extra steps & probably
giving up downstream features along the way?..."

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/

"Tucker Taft" <stt@averstar.com> wrote in message
news:3AAFE454.B079E0F1@averstar.com...
> Jeffrey Carter wrote:
> >
> > Marin David Condic wrote:
> > >
> > > Just for grins, I plugged some words into Google and turned up:
> > > http://www.zworld.com/index.html - you might pay them a visit and look
at
> > > the cost of their boards/development products. They're advertising
their
> > > "RabbitCore 2000" development kit for $169. (I'm sure you can plus it
up
> > > with plenty of options, but that's not a bad starting point, is it?)
If
> > > there was a little SBC like this with an Ada compiler, I think it
might make
> > > a good basis for an embedded programming class....
> >
> > This looks interesting. Perhaps you could organize a deal between ZWorld
> > for this kit, Averstar for their Ada-to-ANSI-C compiler, and an
> > interested Ada person like MDC to write some simple compilation scripts
> > to hide the C, and still offer it at a price that a student could
> > afford.
>
> Let me know how we could be of help.
>
> >
> > --
> > Jeff Carter
> > "I blow my nose on you."
> > Monty Python & the Holy Grail
>
> --
> -Tucker Taft   stt@avercom.net   http://www.averstar.com/~stt/
> Chief Technology Officer, AverCom Corporation (A Titan Company)
> Burlington, MA  USA (AverCom was formerly the Commercial Division of
AverStar:
> http://www.averstar.com/services/ebusiness_applications.html)