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 10.36.108.81 with SMTP id w78mr4620539itb.43.1520870861053; Mon, 12 Mar 2018 09:07:41 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.157.11.165 with SMTP id 34mr487675oth.7.1520870860957; Mon, 12 Mar 2018 09:07:40 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!border1.nntp.ams1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!peer02.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer03.am4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!peer01.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!e10-v6no1302838itf.0!news-out.google.com!h73-v6ni385itb.0!nntp.google.com!r195no1307820itc.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 09:07:40 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <7a285484-20b5-475e-b252-113b8a803785@googlegroups.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=47.185.233.194; posting-account=zwxLlwoAAAChLBU7oraRzNDnqQYkYbpo NNTP-Posting-Host: 47.185.233.194 References: <1aac45bf-2baf-4ca5-9cb5-07e1748ff6b4@googlegroups.com> <06ffd998-f5b4-4ffd-a23e-cf922df2681b@googlegroups.com> <7a285484-20b5-475e-b252-113b8a803785@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Trouble translating a C++ data-structure. From: "Dan'l Miller" Injection-Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 16:07:41 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Received-Bytes: 3967 X-Received-Body-CRC: 2565337175 Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:50937 Date: 2018-03-12T09:07:40-07:00 List-Id: shark8 wrote: > What do you mean by "top level posting"?=20 New posting to comp.lang.ada, not a reply. > Well, I'm aiming for it to be not only HIGHLY portable, but extremely mod= ular/maintainable. Which portions of GNAT are not =E2=80=9CHIGHLY portable=E2=80=9D for exampl= e? On an entirely different topic in the 2nd half of the sentence above, the u= ltimate in =E2=80=9Cextreme modular=E2=80=9Dity would be to remove all cont= rol-flow/looping/branching constructs from the core language, =E2=80=98redu= cing=E2=80=99 them to =E2=80=98mere=E2=80=99 libraries, as Alphard was purs= uing in the 1970s. Something similar could be done throughout other constr= ucts in Ada, such as the specs, so that the core language is an extremely s= mall language and Ada-as-we-know-it, Ada+Spark-as-we-know-it, Ada+ASIS-as-w= e-know-it, Ada+newFangledInnovations-yet-to-be-imagined, and so forth are = =E2=80=A2libraries=E2=80=A2=E2=80=94not of subroutines & parameterized-type= s/generics, but of Ada-Reference-Manual semantics & syntax and so forth, mu= ch as Alphard at Carnegie Mellon University was envisioning back in the 197= 0s: basically to back-apply more-modern concepts: aspect-oriented program= ming (AOP) weavers on steroids. Or in other words, what if the Ada Referen= ce Manual was no longer English prose, but rather executable Alphard-esque = code. What if a stage of multi-stage programming was to compile the app's = chosen weaving of Ada83 or Ada95 or Ada2012 or Ada+Spark or Ada+ASIS or Ada= +somethingEvenMoreWow? (Mary Shaw had a breakthrough in the making, but ne= ver finished it during the late 1970s, apparently because Greed/Red/Ada suc= ked all the air out of the room, leaving little budget/time/research-grants= for Alphard.) Now that truly would be the breakthrough for compiler front= -ends that LLVM has been for compiler back-ends. That would put Ada back i= n the driver's seat as the premier processor-native-machine-code compiled l= anguage, leap-frogging & eclipsing Clang as the perceived most-modern truly= state-of-the-art among all the (open-source) compiler front-ends. Plus, s= uch multistage-programming modularity in the compiler front-end would unlea= sh an explosion of new language evolution/extension in Ada (just when many = people outside the Ada community think Ada is getting old & grey-haired nee= ding to go to bed early each evening due to being out of energy each day). = It might even usher in an era of fervor for Ada unseen since the DoD chose= Green over Red. Or did you have something else in mind as =E2=80=9Cextreme modular=E2=80=9D= ity of an Ada front-end?