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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 2002:a5e:c60d:: with SMTP id f13mr13031874iok.8.1558361517953; Mon, 20 May 2019 07:11:57 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:a9d:6c16:: with SMTP id f22mr41399587otq.182.1558361517806; Mon, 20 May 2019 07:11:57 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.dns-netz.com!news.freedyn.net!newsreader4.netcologne.de!news.netcologne.de!peer02.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer02.am4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!peer02.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!i64no8735iti.0!news-out.google.com!l135ni21itc.0!nntp.google.com!i64no8730iti.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Mon, 20 May 2019 07:11:57 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=47.185.234.171; posting-account=zwxLlwoAAAChLBU7oraRzNDnqQYkYbpo NNTP-Posting-Host: 47.185.234.171 References: <100ad407-090e-4316-9746-a4469568b53e@googlegroups.com> <477352cf-80d0-458c-b64a-4605557fef8f@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Ada to Ada Translator ? From: Optikos Injection-Date: Mon, 20 May 2019 14:11:57 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Received-Bytes: 4141 X-Received-Body-CRC: 2240477588 Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:56343 Date: 2019-05-20T07:11:57-07:00 List-Id: On Saturday, May 18, 2019 at 10:26:38 AM UTC-5, foo wong wrote: > Thanks Simon but this is still weird-weird-wierd >=20 > It's just a bunch of games. I personally can't keep it straight. >=20 > If a small company wanted to create an instrument with Ada embedded on le= t's say an ARM based circuit > board, there is just so much non-sense to deal with in the Ada world and = it's just so much easier with > C++. >=20 > Adacore is our leader in the free software world and they are leading us = into the abyss . >=20 > We really need another compiler. One that is doesn't play license games a= nd that is designed to solve > the problem Ada was created for, embedded parallel hardware use. >=20 > I am not sure if I can do this but I will fork the older GMGPL code to cr= eate it, if I can. It will be small and > simple, like the TinyC compiler vs GCC Patrick, I just investigated GnuCOBOL a little. As a generator of C code w= ithout linking to GCC object code in any way (most especially GnuCOBOL does= not dump out information extracted from a C-language AST from GCC), GnuCOB= OL does not evoke any of the Target Code versus intermediate representation= clauses of the Runtime Library Exception. Mimicking this architectural pr= inciple for your yacc/bison-based and flex-based Ada-to-Ada translator woul= d likewise not risk running afoul of the RLE. With that it mind, why be interested in the 3.14p release of GNAT, which wa= s the last release licensed under GMGPL? Your Ada-to-Ada translator would = be a mere user of current FSF GNAT (as if it were a human being), not linke= d to GNAT. Your generated-Ada source code would run no more licensing risk= than any other human-authored source code that gets compiled by FSF GNAT t= hat has the RLE. (Although stay away from GPL Community Edition of GNAT th= ough if you want to avoid forcing all users' to be strict GPLv3.) Or were you thinking of using GNAT compiler and its Ada AST in your Ada-to-= Ada translator? There would be license issues galore in this variant. Btw, your Ada-to-Ada translator would effectively function as the #1 and #3= report of bugs in GNAT and publishing of fixes that I mention along anothe= r branch of this thread; the representation of the bug reports in GNAT woul= d be source code instead of a bug database. That alone would be a valuable= contribution to the Ada community as a whole, especially the GNAT subset. [I am not a lawyer. This posting is merely a remembrance of my understandi= ng for my own usage. Please consult a copyright-law & contract-law lawyer = if these matters affect you.]