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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,29f36805b9a20fe8 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-04-02 10:06:10 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!news.gv.tsc.tdk.com!news.iac.net!newsgate.cistron.nl!isdnet!psinet-france!psiuk-f4!psiuk-p4!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Streams in Ada Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 12:42:18 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9aaa5c$h5p$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <9aa3dd$efb$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 136.170.200.133 X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 986229740 17593 136.170.200.133 (2 Apr 2001 16:42:20 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Apr 2001 16:42:20 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:6358 Date: 2001-04-02T16:42:20+00:00 List-Id: "Florian Weimer" wrote in message news:tgofufwd4x.fsf@mercury.rus.uni-stuttgart.de... > "Marin David Condic" writes: > > > But wouldn't that posit that there *was* an Ada95 implementation on a PDP-10 > > and that a Stream_Element was 36 bits? > > Well, the poster specifically mentioned portability, and his code does > not work on such an architecture. IMHO, portable code hasn't just to > run on all platforms which exist (this could be called 'practically > portable code'), but on all Ada implementations. > O.K. That's a valid point. But the instant one delves into the theoretically possible machines, one can spend an enormous amount of energy making code that is portable to all possible machines, when maybe it is sufficient to make code that is portable to most machines that are in practical existence. While there are machines that don't have an 8 bit byte as the logical storage unit for a Stream_Element (the 1750a comes to mind...:-) and there are machines that don't even have a storage unit evenly divisible by 8 (the PDP-10 is a prime example) code that was dependent on an 8 bit storage unit & Stream_Element is probably going to port to well over 90% of all the places that are likely to come up or be at all important. Of course, if all you have to do is a little simple static math in your declarations to keep things totally portable, its probably worth the effort. > > Someone mentioned here a few days ago about the existence of PDP-10 > > look-alikes, but I don't think anyone has any evidence of a validated Ada95 > > compiler for one of them. > > GCC is currently being ported to it. This has *got* to be a labor of love! I find it hard to imagine that there are thousands (or even hundreds) of PDP-10 sites out there, much less thousands (or even hundreds) of PDP-10 sites with a burning need for Ada compilers. (Wouldn't they mostly be in use to maintain legacy systems written in Fortran, Cobol, or even Bliss?) Either it is a real specialty need (with the government picking up the tab?) or it is an idle, Quixotic, excentric programmer with too much time & money on his hands - or a twisted sense of humor. (Ahhhh.... To be an idle Quixotic excentric programmer with too much time & money & a twisted sense of humor and a government contract to pick up the tab! But I digress....) If someone is doing this, I'd be very curious to find out where & what for. 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/