Re: GNAT verses A# for soft-realtime system

["Chip and Allie Orange" <acorange@comcast.net>]

"Jeffrey R. Carter" <jrcarter@acm.org> wrote in message 
news:2IWRh.39480$_c5.25338@attbi_s22...
> Chip and Allie Orange wrote:
>>
>> I can purchase a Windows-based PC robot for $5k, and I'd like to learn to 
>> program it to do autonomous functions (including realtime image 
>> analysis).
>>
>> I have a choice of GNAT or A# for my programming environment.
>
> A# is a version of GNAT that targets .net.
>
> If you're willing to pay $5k for your robot, you might be willing to pay 
> 10% or less of that for a supported compiler. AdaCore doesn't provide 
> anything in that price range, but both Aonix and RR SW do.
>
> Whether you go with a supported compiler, or with a free version of GNAT 
> (including A#), you have a couple of decisions to make. One is which 
> version of Ada you want to use. Only GNAT GPL implements most of the most 
> recent version; A# and the commercial compilers implement Ada 95.
>
> The other is the target platform you want to use. Apparently you have a 
> Windows target but could also use .net on top of that. Using .net would 
> constrain you to A#.
>
> These are not decisions we can make for you. GNAT GPL has some errors in 
> the new features, but if you're interested in learning the new version of 
> Ada, that might be the way you want to go. If you'd rather have support 
> and Ada 95 is acceptable, a commercial compiler would probably be your 
> choice. If you'd like to use existing .net SW, A# would be the way to go.
>


Thanks Jeff.

I am constrained by an NDA from saying why .net offers me some advantages, 
but it does.

You've helped answer one of my questions, in that I now understand A# is 
Ada95, while GNAT/GPL is Ada2005.  I was interested in Ada2005, as long as 
I'm bothering to throw my time and money into this.

My question was also, does .net have something about it that makes it a poor 
environment for soft real-time systems?  Especially, does it produce code 
that's noticeably slow, or that garbage collects in some way that would make 
it less than desirable for real-time systems with very limited CPU 
resources?

Do the additional features of 2005 target real-time systems?

Finally, are the products from compiler vendors (Aionix and RR) that much 
better than GNAT/GPL?

Thanks again.

Chip