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,ac55ec18f7b0a53c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-05 13:35:52 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!skynet.be!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: Ada and embedded applications Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 16:18:45 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9fjer7$b3d$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <9fh0v9$dob$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 136.170.200.133 X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 991772327 11373 136.170.200.133 (5 Jun 2001 20:18:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Jun 2001 20:18:47 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: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8193 Date: 2001-06-05T20:18:47+00:00 List-Id: ....or availability. C has the advantage over Ada in that you can usually get some version of a C compiler for a lot of small microcontrollers. Ada is around for some 16 bit processors (not necessarily the most popular, either) and most of the more generally used 32 bit processors (M680x0, Mips, PowerPC, 80x86, etc.) I'd say that anyone who prefers C over Ada in a host/target environment where a descent implementation of Ada is available is doing so out of ignorance (Or anti-Ada bigotry). For lots of popular processors you have good Ada implementations & no reason not to gain its advantages over C. For quite a few smaller processors your choices quickly become C or Assembly language and I'd rather use C than Assembly. This may be blasphemy, but I'd be in favor of an Ada subset for small microcontrollers wherein any features too hard to implement or too costly were dropped. I'd want the Ada features that had compile-time implications (rep clauses, static checks, etc.) but would willingly abandon run-time features (floating point, big integers, whatever) in order to have Ada as a choice over C. That's one area where "The Mandate" ended up hurting Ada. If there had been a 100% upward-compatible subset of Ada available for small embedded machines, it might not have received so much resistance and might have seen more "evolving" implementations. In the early days, Ada just bit off more than she could chew & we're still paying that price. 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/ "Randy Brukardt" wrote in message news:zt9T6.39$yq2.1735@client... > > As I recall, that version could make useful programs that fit in 16K ROM > and 2K RAM. The only reason to prefer C is ignorance... >