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-Thread: 103376,db8388c6b42d398 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news2.google.com!news4.google.com!news.germany.com!nuzba.szn.dk!news.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!not-for-mail From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How do I go about creating a minimal GNAT runtime? Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:07:27 -0600 Organization: Jacob Sparre Andersen Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: static-69-95-181-76.mad.choiceone.net X-Trace: munin.nbi.dk 1236031649 27857 69.95.181.76 (2 Mar 2009 22:07:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@jacob-sparre.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 22:07:29 +0000 (UTC) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5579 Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:4848 Date: 2009-03-02T16:07:27-06:00 List-Id: "anon" wrote in message news:R7Bql.409687$Mh5.142056@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net... > You need to understand what this person means by "minimal GNAT runtime" > system. From his web site, he means no Linux, Windows or other OS, aka > the Ada program is the OS and all libraries must be static. That is, > until he creates a dynamic or shared library loader, but that means he > first must build a storage device driver with a file system. I understand exactly that. But you chose to ignore my point... > A problem with GNAT and this design is that GNAT uses around 50 packages > ... ...which is that GNAT is *not* designed for this sort of use. Yes, it can be made to fit it, sort of, but it wasn't designed to minimize code size / runtime size in the way that some other compilers (like Janus/Ada) were. The old saw "Patient: it hurts if I do X. Doctor: Don't do X." surely applies here. If it is hard to do something with GNAT, use a more appropriate tool. No compiler can be good at *everything*. ... > All of this means it a big job. This could help to explain why Adacores > charges $15K per years for someone to get those special runtime system > with GNAT PRO series. We used to have a bare-machine version of Janus/Ada, as did many other Ada vendors, but they were all dropped due to lack of demand. Which is probably why GNAT has a design that makes that hard - they didn't think it was that important. It takes $$$ to show that sort of interest. Randy.