Re: Ada and Hardware

["chris.danx" <chris.danx@ntlworld.com>]

> >I know how to do it in C.  Use the biosdisk function!  Which is incredibly
>
> Well, then the way to do it in Ada is *also* to use the biosdisk function, or
to
> write something that does what it does. Ada isn't *that* different from C.
>
> >unsafe but is the only way i know of doing this.  I don't know how to do it
in
> >Ada without binding to C, but i want to avoid this if i can.
>
> There's nothing particularly wrong with binding to an OS utility just because
it
> uses the C parameter passing interface.

I just thought how am i going to write the fs to disk, realised that the only
way would be to bind with C and panicked.  I have always had problems binding
with C.  For some reason my attempts at this have always failed.  A while back i
tried to write a binding to Conio (i didn't know about Jerry Van Dijks!  Where's
the new site i lost the link?) and couldn't do it for a whole host of reasons, i
couldn't fathom.  I used the stuff in Lovelace to do somethings but some things
just weren't happening.  A couple of bad interfacing experiences have put me off
binding with C.

> Now *writing* something new in C then
> linking to it from Ada might be a bit silly, but that's not what you are
talking
> about, is it?

No!  Thankfully i have more sense than that.

>
> >I don't see how it isn't an Ada question. Ada supports systems programming,
> True, but so do lots of other languages. If you wanted to find out how to
write
> your own PC boot manager, that's a system programming question too. But
there's
> nothing particularly *Ada* about what you have to do to accomplish this, and
> this is not the newsgroup that is full of people who are experts in writing PC
> boot managers.

All i wanted to know was if an Ada package existed for raw writing to floppy
disks.  One doesn't exist as far as i and others know so i'll write a binding to
C (or i'll try to).

Chris Campbell