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,a1ce307c10055549 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-12-08 15:31:34 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!hse-mtl-ppp75312.qc.sympatico.CA!not-for-mail From: Christopher Browne Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: IBM Acquires Rational Ada Date: 8 Dec 2002 23:31:32 GMT Organization: cbbrowne Computing Inc Message-ID: References: <3DF1615C.7AAAC86E@adaworks.com> <3DF1B042.6603DDDE@easystreet.com> <3DF2A483.EC512CDF@adaworks.com> <8db3d6c8.0212080918.4e0a732@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: hse-mtl-ppp75312.qc.sympatico.ca (64.229.212.73) X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1039390292 32858776 64.229.212.73 (16 [125932]) X-Draft-From: ("nntp+chvatal:comp.lang.ada" 5158) X-Home-Page: http://www.cbbrowne.com/info/ X-Emacs-Acronym: Each Manual's Audience is Completely Stupified Microsoft: Where the service packs are larger than the original releases. X-Uboat-Death-Message: TORPEDOED BY NETSCAPE. UNABLE TO USE RADIO. SINKING. U-840. Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:31563 Date: 2002-12-08T23:31:32+00:00 List-Id: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, nma124@hotmail.com (steve_H) wrote: > If it were not for gcc, we probably would not have linux nor apache > nor 99.99% of the open system products out there. If gcc could do > Ada long time ago, then may be apache would have been written in Ada > instead of C? at least that would have been an option. That seems totally unlikely. We might not have Linux without GCC, but we almost certainly would have Apache, because Unix platforms virtually always come with a C compiler. Most of the GNU "toolchain" existed for years before Linux came along. And actually, while it is unlikely that "Linux" would be without GCC, it is fairly likely that the "desire for a free Unix" would have been satisfied as a result of some combination of the BSD codebase along with either some port of PCC, the TENDRA C compiler suite, or perhaps LCC. At the time, there was zero likelihood of Ada being a plausible alternative. The nearest alternative might have been one of the Wirth languages, whether Modula 2 or Modula 3 or Oberon. But in the community of "Unix folk" that were building things like the GNU tools and HTTPD, the language of choice was C, and if GCC had not been available, one of the other C compiler alternatives would surely have been chosen. -- (concatenate 'string "chris" "@cbbrowne.com") http://cbbrowne.com/info/c.html "I think that helps the users too much." -- CSTACY