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,LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,216b18d81cce4f75 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-11 20:09:38 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!news.home.com!news1.sttls1.wa.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "DuckE" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <3B183CB8.3EE396E7@engineer.com> <_M3S6.8957$HL5.1284411@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com> <8DKS6.27593$%_1.4657414@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com> <0daV6.9332$6d5.1953313@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com> Subject: Re: Ada Microkernel? X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Message-ID: Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 03:09:37 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.248.45.203 X-Complaints-To: abuse@home.net X-Trace: news1.sttls1.wa.home.com 992315377 24.248.45.203 (Mon, 11 Jun 2001 20:09:37 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 20:09:37 PDT Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8592 Date: 2001-06-12T03:09:37+00:00 List-Id: "chris.danx" wrote in message news:nYaV6.41193$fs6.3698668@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com... > > >Second, (again) did i get the correct distribution (it is detailed in the > reply > > >text above)? This is VERY IMPORTANT. > > > > 3.13p is the latest public source distribution. > > The problem is that there seems to be different source versions for different > platforms (maybe the others are patches) and i'm unsure if the source i > downloaded is correct. It was 3.13psrc.tgz or something similar. > I believe you'll find that sources for all the 3.13p distributions are contained in the same file. While I haven't been through the detail, from what I can tell various files are selected for building the different target runtimes using scripts that are run during the build. A couple of things you may find of interest: There has been some indication that current GNAT sources will enter the common GCC source tree soon. You may want to keep tabs on the gcc mailing list to monitor the progress. You can find an archive of the GCC mailing list at: http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/ There is a mailing list dedicated to GNAT where you'll find people who know quite a bit about the internals. To subscribe to gnatlist by go to the web site: http://osgood.seas.gwu.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl select "Special Topics" and you'll find gnatlist. One of the message posted there last march reads: You dont actually need ecos or an RTOS at all to get gnat running on an embedded target. I have cobbled together a gnat i386-linux to m68k-coff cross using gcc2.8.1 , gnat3.11p and newlib. It comples and runs as expected, although you dont get Ada tasking. This is not a problem for me as I have written my own scheduler. The only major problem I had was related to the fact that newlib is missing some headers which gnatlib required. All of these, however are related to stuff you don't need in a cross environment, like dirent.h. I just pinched the missing files from my linux distro, and hey presto it compiled and worked OK ( Although with some broken library functions related to stuff like file io ). Having an RTOS is, of course, desirable - but given the size of a C lib, Ada lib, plus the fact that Ada binaries are generally not small, you start to fill up ROM space pretty quickly on a small embedded target, even without an RTOS. Avoiding the RTOS simplifies things, keeps your binaries smaller, and is quite feasible for many applications. If anyone is interested in doing something similar, I'd be happy to help. Francis Valentinis RMIT Aerospace Engineering. [snip]