Re: Building an Ada compiler

[stt@henning.camb.inmet.com (Tucker Taft)]

James E. Hopper (jhopper@erinet.com) wrote:
: ...
: I know how to use machten to build a stand alone gcc that can work
: with other IDE's like the GW AdaED environment or perhaps as a plug in
: to metrowerks but this gnat would not be able to build itself without
: much more work than i feel like throwing at it.  ...

I can believe it would be difficult to create a self-building GNAT/GCC
on MacOS, but that is presumably not the same thing as building
a GNAT that can compile normal "user" Ada programs directly on MacOS.

: ...but unless someone
: feels like funding this i am going to concentrate on making the
: Machten compile and tools as good as they can be. i see issues like
: moving it to another IDE as distractions of the fundamental issue of
: providing a useful compiler.

Not everyone agrees with you, but as you say, they will have to put
their money or their time where there mouth is.  Even using MPW
on the Mac is distasteful to many people.  There really is no need
for a command-line interface if you start from scratch with an IDE
like CodeWarrior.  However, it is different when you have an elaborate
system already built around make-like tools.  Moving that to a 
command-line-less environment can be painful.

: jim

-Tucker Taft   stt@inmet.com   http://www.inmet.com/~stt/
Intermetrics, Inc.  Cambridge, MA  USA