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,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,36288d1c39303ceb X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-21 08:29:37 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net!newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Porting GNAT to Debian Hurd From: Charles Hixson References: <3B296913.1F13E65D@engineer.com> <3B2AE5F4.59E4ABE8@engineer.com> Organization: Mandala Fluteworks Message-ID: User-Agent: Xnews/4.06.11 Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 15:22:47 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.94.156.19 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net 993136967 198.94.156.19 (Thu, 21 Jun 2001 08:22:47 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 08:22:47 PDT X-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 08:20:40 PDT (newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8977 Date: 2001-06-21T15:22:47+00:00 List-Id: Exposing my ignorance: "B. Douglas Hilton" wrote in news:3B2AE5F4.59E4ABE8@engineer.com: > I don't know if Hurd is ripe for a takeover, but it would > probably not be excessively difficult to fork the > development tree at this stage. > I was looking at the gnat sources, and it appears that > you need > to already have an older gnat installed to build a newer > one. This might be tricky for Hurd, because I'd have to > cross-compile gnat from Linux, then use it to do a native > ... > > - Doug > > > ... When I first encountered Algol, I discovered that the basic specs were an Algol compiler that was written in a simple form of Algol. This seemed quite strange, but I was told that it was reasonably simple to write a compiler for this stripped down Algol in assembler, so that really made it quite portable. This seems to be the root of the problem here. The underlying compiler for the language that GNAT is written in isn't some small stripped down subset. It's Ada. So you need a complete compiler to build a compiler. I suppose that cross- compilation's a simpler problem to solve. What would really make things easier, though, would be an Ada compiler with an option to emit, say, C code. Or Forth. Or any of the other portable assemblers. This might not be optimized for the target system, but it would almost always work. One could think of it as a cross-compilation into a abstract machine. Speaking of abstract machines, does JGnat code require more than the JVM? Perhaps the bootstrapping could be done via JGnat. Does the Hurd have a JVM? Can Gnat be compiled into JVM code? (I think that C code would be a better choice, but JGnat already exists. If it can compile everything into Java class files, then maybe the problem of getting started is partially solved.) -- Charles Hixson Copy software legally, the GNU way! Use GNU software, and legally make and share copies of software. See http://www.gnu.org http://www.redhat.com http://www.linux-mandrake.com http://www.calderasystems.com/ http://www.linuxapps.com/