Re: Restructuring of Ada (was RE: Ada on Cypress CY7C646 (8051)?)

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

I should have said something on this aspect as well: The generation of C and
subsequent running it through the C compiler starts becoming a difficult
sell. It can complicate the development process (not necessarily - if the
thing is so highly integrated as to make the C part invisible) and then you
get this question: "Well if its got to use the C compiler, why not just
program it in C and not support *two* languages?" Its a tough one when
you're looking at relatively small programs that tend to not benefit
humungously from the "Programming In The Large" concepts of Ada. The type
checking and constraint checking, etc. are all nice, but does it buy enough
benefit to justify added complexity in the development process? If it is
*really seamless* (you never see the C compiler and all the development
tools work as if Ada was their natural home) and the cost is not
significantly more, then maybe it flies. So far, I don't see this happening
a lot. (Try looking at the web sites of manufacturers who sell SBCs with
development kits. How many will you find that give the end user the choice
of using Ada?)

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/

"Philip Anderson" <phil.anderson@amsjv.com> wrote in message
news:3B209AB8.51ECEEFA@amsjv.com...
>
> Of course, it's not quite the same since you need a specialist compiler
> to generate the small machine code, but I wonder whether an Ada compiler
> generating C as an intermediate level is an answer?
>