BLAS

[Duncan Sands <sands@topo.math.u-psud.fr>]

>Marvelous! When I find some time I'll use your binding.
>For now I'm using an excerpt, of course also with "digits <>"
>genericity for float type and with hastly conception - see below.
>Maybe the "BLAS_Precision" could be added as generic parametre
>for equilibirum with the generic "digits <>" ? Another solution
>would be to pass as generic:
>
> 1) the type you want to use,            type Float_Type is digits <>;
> 2) the type which you know is single,   type Single is digits <>;
> 3) the type which you know is double    type Double is digits <>;
>
>and automatically identify the type with the 'digits or another more
>subtle criterion. Surely for Ada 95, the Interface.Fortran package
>contains 2) and 3) so you can determine the "BLAS_Precision" only
>with 1) as generic, but then you'd lose the Ada 83 compatibility.

Dear Gautier, keeping Ada 83 compatibility seems problematic.
After all, the problem is not just with whether Float_Type
is single or double precision, but you also need to know
the size of Fortran_Integer, Character_Set and perhaps some
other stuff as well.  I notice that in your binding you
suppose that Fortran_Integer and Integer are the same...
There is also the problem of link names.  For example, if
I compile the BLAS with g77, then the link names have an
underscore appended, and I need to tell Ada about this.
Pragma Import can handle this, but can pragma Interface?

How important do you think it is to keep Ada 83 compatibility?

Best wishes,

Duncan.