From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on
	ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1
Date: 26 Jul 93 17:11:09 GMT
From: eachus@mitre-bedford.arpa  (Robert I. Eachus)
Subject: Re: Ada for microcontroller?
Message-ID: <EACHUS.93Jul26121109@spectre.mitre.org>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <1993Jul23.123338.26421@hellgate.utah.edu> matwood%peruvian.cs.utah.
edu@cs.utah.edu (Mark Atwood) writes:

   > I'm starting on a new project that will be running on an embedded
   > controller.  Looking through the list of Validated Ada compilers,
   > I noticed that there were several for the MIL-STD-1750 processor.
   > If someone could fit Ada onto that (begin personal opinion)
   > clunky, obsolete at birth, small, slow, expensive piece of ****
   > (end personal opinion) why not for a 8051, 6805/08/11. Z80, etc.,
   > based microprocessor?

    Right now the situation seems to be that if there is interest AND
a floating-point instruction set (which maybe supported through traps
and software emulation) there will be a validated Ada compiler,
otherwise not.

   This can, of course, be traced back to the no subsets policy, even
though it was never intended to force this situation.  I could
probably cobble up a portable floating point library that would work
on even 8-bit microcontrollers (if they have enough address space!),
but this is not the right solution.  A much better resolution to the
issue would be to validate a compiler (under AI-325) with NO floating
point types and no floating-point arithmetic.  A demonstration that it
can be done, and of how to do it, would work wonders.

--

					Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...