RE: Compiler for Z80/6510

["Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <rleif@rleif.com>]

From: Bob Leif
To: Marin David Condic
One reasonable approach is to host a Java virtual machine (J code
interpreter) on the 8 or 16 bit processor. Then use an Ada J code compiler.
On a significant project, this should produce a smaller memory requirement
then a regular compiler. If it does not, there are significant design flaws
in the J code interpreter. In the real-world, it may be necessary to employ
significant restrictions on the Ada compiler and possibly minimize the size
of the J code interpreter.

I must also add that in the past many microprocessors including the original
PC CPU used a 16 bit internal chip with an 8 bit bus. One could replace an 8
bit chip with a 32 bit chip, providing the new chip had the same pinout and
could send and read data in the old format.

-----Original Message-----
From: condicma@bogon.pwfl.com [mailto:condicma@bogon.pwfl.com]
Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 10:42 AM
To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
Subject: Re: Compiler for Z80/6510


Lutz Donnerhacke wrote:

> Does anyone know a working Ada95 compiler for Z80 (U880) and 6510/6502
> microcontrolers?

It's pretty sad that there was a near zero useful response to this
question. (The most useful being from Tucker Taft regarding the Ada-toC
compiler). This so quickly degenerated into a discussion about Ada vs
Assembler that one wonders if maybe this is a smoke screen to cover up the
embarrassing real answer that "No. There are no Ada compilers for small
microcontrollers."

To the best of my knowledge, this is a true statement - I've asked the
question myself many times and I would *love* to be told that I'm wrong
and here's the compiler to prove it. You will find any number of people
who will tell you how there is no theoretical roadblock to making such a
compiler. However, when you get around to saying "Show me one" the subject
seems to quickly change to something like instruction set architectures,
the relative efficiency of assembly programming or why C sucks. It must be
too difficult/expensive to do for the perceived size of the market or
somebody would have retargeted their compiler by now and started hawking
it in conjunction with a microcontroller.

I think it would be very useful to have a microcontroller card with an Ada
compiler targeted to it, hosted on a PC and at an affordable price. I
think that as a package, it would do much to promote Ada within the
embedded programming world. One successful development could sell
hundreds-of-thousands of the microcontroller card and generate a royalty
for the RTK for the compiler. (Sort of like cutting a hit record and
watching it go platinum!)

The sad news is that while you can find dozens of off the shelf controller
cards with a whole kit for developing the software in C from a PC, (and
generally under $500, so a garage startup can afford the development kit!)
you won't likely find anything similar in Ada. If you do, I'd be most
grateful to hear about it.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
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