From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,6232d4984b20be17 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-03-20 20:02:05 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sea-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Brian Rogoff Subject: Re: Implementing an elegant range type. In-Reply-To: <3AB8021C.6DF5FB62@linuxchip.demon.co.uk> Message-ID: References: <3ab6442f.0@silver.truman.edu> <7nst6.593482$U46.17851651@news1.sttls1.wa.home.com> <3AB6E116.BDD40E4B@linuxchip.demon.co.uk> <3AB8021C.6DF5FB62@linuxchip.demon.co.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 03:58:03 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.184.139.136 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: sea-read.news.verio.net 985147083 206.184.139.136 (Wed, 21 Mar 2001 03:58:03 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 03:58:03 GMT Organization: Verio Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:5953 Date: 2001-03-21T03:58:03+00:00 List-Id: On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, Dr Adrian Wrigley wrote: > I also have written a VHDL -> Ada translator, which has the potential > to allow hardware designs to migrate easily to software. > Handling of "downto" in array indices is not trivial, and I have left > this (very important!) feature out. Does anyone else out there > use or have translators between the two languages? Nope, but such translators going either or both ways would be very useful. Believe it or not, I'm actually more of a Verilog guy (in Silicon Valley VHDL is not widely used) but I've definitely thought Ada had a lot of potential here. It might be too late as C/C++ based hardware modeling is getting lots of press. > I can also see application for Ada -> VHDL translation, but this > really has to be limited to a subset in practice (no dynamic creation > of tasks, exceptions or generic subprogram parameters in VHDL). Have you seen Peter Ashenden's SUAVE enhancements to VHDL? It pretty much makes VHDL into Ada 95. > Since VHDL is one of the worlds most succesful hardware languages, > I think it has the potential to help introduce Ada to many > engineers largely unaware of its existence. The numerous colleges > that teach VHDL could easily justify teaching Ada95 as the > "software counterpart". The benefits of "the Ada way" are very > apparent when co-designing hardware and software using VHDL and C, > where it is routine to find the VHDL clarity and type checking > show how inefficient development in "C style" languages really is. > There are some, however, who advocate using "C style" languages > for hardware design, since people can leverage their familarity > with C in the learning process. I do not agree with that approach. I think Ada will be playing catch up, but it is a good idea. > Hope this sheds some light on Ada's relationship to VHDL as seen > by someone who has used both extensively in commerce (am I alone?). I'm with you in spirit, but Verilog is overwhelmingly more popular in the US and Japan than VHDL. -- Brian