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: 103376,92640d662fc31a03 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-07 11:36:40 PST Path: newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!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: howto make system calls (newbie question) Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 14:25:54 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9d6pbk$64b$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <9d6c89$1nd$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3AF6D040.FF71B782@gsde.hou.us.ray.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 136.170.200.133 X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 989259956 6283 136.170.200.133 (7 May 2001 18:25:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 7 May 2001 18:25:56 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: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:7279 Date: 2001-05-07T18:25:56+00:00 List-Id: Well, not everything in the world needs to be in an annex to the ARM. The Posix binding is a fair example. Of course, there you have the problem that the interface may not be made available by a given compiler and it might not be applicable in all environments anyway. That's a binding to a specific class of OS that may not be common across all OS's & one would want to give that some thought. Is there a reason to maybe make an OS independent package available that provided some of the things that might exist in Posix, but might be provided by a different system in a different manner? Or is Posix widely spread enough that Ada could just say "If you want access to system facilities of this type - go see Posix"? Is the Posix binding going to just come with my compiler and I can go along fat, dumb and happy using it at will with no thought as to where to find it and no concern for transportability of my code? The answers are not clear to me. However, I still think there is room to add some standard libraries to Ada that make it more useful to the programmer. Clearly the Ada.Strings... branch is a good example - C may supply some fairly lame string handling functions but Ada83 provided none at all. Now Ada95 has an area of clear superiority in that you get some really good pre-fabricated string utilities that are just there on any implementation and are at your disposal. Might there not be similar libraries of things that Ada could provide in some standardized manner? If a C programmer can say "I can do this thing in C - how do I do it in Ada?" should it be fair game to ask how we might have that provided in all Ada implementations? I really wish the Ada Standard Library Working Group had managed to get somewhere with defining even a starting point for this sort of thing. Even if a library didn't come by virtue of the ARM, if it was available with a standard interface and provided by most, if not all, implementations, it would enhance the value of Ada to the programmer. Then we'd be off in other newsgroups asking "I can do this in Ada - how do I do it in your language?" :-) 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/ "Samuel T. Harris" wrote in message news:3AF6D040.FF71B782@gsde.hou.us.ray.com... > Of course, there are other "standards" which are not part > of the Ada standard. For instance, the POSIX Ada binding > has been invaluable to me in writing portable code which > requires facilities from the operating system. > > Since this is standardized by IEEE, I feel any particular > need to include it as an Ada LRM annex. >