Re: Ada Implementation of functions and produce C for exotic architectures (Expressif)

[Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>]

Patrice Freydiere <frett27@gmail.com> writes:

> I've been informed the current gnat is able to target C, especially
> with ZFP profile. -->
> https://blog.adacore.com/sparkzumo-part-2-integrating-the-arduino-build-environment-into-gps
>
> Seems this target "C" is only available on gnat pro, 

I think so.

> I don't much program in Ada to have a professional solution, are there
> any alternatives ? i have an embedded project and wish to implements
> some core functionality in Ada,

Since the development kit from Expressif doesn't support Ada, the only
way forward I can think of would be to find out what the CPU actually is
in the chip and build/obtain a compiler for it with Ada enabled. It
looks as though it might be ARM-based, in which case it might not be too
hard.

Once you have a compiler that will target the chip, it should be
possible to build an object library that you can call up from C (I'm
assuming that you would retain most of the existing C scaffolding).

I won't pretend this would be a walk in the park.

[Later]

Downloading & setting up the virtual machine as spec'd in the ESP8266
Getting Started Guide, the target of the 4.8.2 cross-compiler is
xtensa-lx106-elf. Whether this will work with standard unpatched
binutils etc I don't know.