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=-0.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FORGED_GMAIL_RCVD, FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.glorb.com!peer02.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!post02.iad.highwinds-media.com!fx05.iad.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Shark8 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/36.0a1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: community-based compiler (was Re: What exactly is the licensing situation with GNAT?) References: <87fvdr2vdv.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk> <54609F34.4080201@spam.spam> <35f01472-3510-4f67-8765-006fa8591c35@googlegroups.com> <9tc8w.73007$ZT5.37595@fx07.iad> <22a3816a-4e89-48f0-a126-dce581781beb@googlegroups.com> <084b1934-9641-425e-85ec-293e0334413e@googlegroups.com> <86bf69c8-eb08-4696-b6c9-3784f5c42213@googlegroups.com> <87389olqie.fsf@ixod.org> <3516753b-5304-408d-99c8-67f544fdc185@googlegroups.com> <20141114085046.4cb00404@atmarama.ddns.net> <8392b6bd-61ab-43f9-aa6d-92a4b3f17f0d@googlegroups.com> In-Reply-To: <8392b6bd-61ab-43f9-aa6d-92a4b3f17f0d@googlegroups.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: X-Complaints-To: abuse@teranews.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 20:53:32 UTC Organization: TeraNews.com Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 13:53:33 -0700 X-Received-Bytes: 3667 X-Received-Body-CRC: 929361070 Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:23325 Date: 2014-11-14T13:53:33-07:00 List-Id: On 14-Nov-14 11:55, David Botton wrote: >> I agree with you that there ought to be another open-source >> >freely-available Ada compiler > What resources are needed to make it happen? Hm, I think there are several things that are needed, and which would have different emphasis at different points in development. -- For example, a good, clear plan for the overall architecture and underlying tech* would be essential. -- Another thing that might be useful is, from the ground up, employing formal methods (ie Ada/SPARK and proofs) for correctness.** After the initial stages,*** the "clear path to submit patches and bug reports" becomes much more important after getting to an operable state. * e.g. if it used DIANA for its interface between the front-end and back-end (and tools) that should be (a) shown and (b) well documented. OR if it uses a SCID [ http://mindprod.com/project/scid.html ] approach documentation of the underlying DB and interfacing to it. ** In that case, for bootstrapping, it might be worth it to develop a Strict Ada 2012 compiler [w/ the corrigenda] in Ada 2012, meaning that it doesn't accept obsolescent features, and then add those later. *** A non-encumbered, correctness-checked RTL, with as much implementation-/architecture-dependent stuff isolated as possible [i.e. as portable as possible] would be a good offshoot. > Although I am just as happy to see GNAT get a community project behind > it to insure unencumbered runtimes and compilers available freely to > all in simple easy install packages. > > I am sure many including myself would get involved to work on bugs and > issues if it was clear and easy to get a working dev environment and > clear path to submit fixes. That may exist now, I just don't know. I haven't found a good path, but then I'm more interested in a whole new project rather than tying ourselves down to a single implementation.