Re: Sockets

[Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>]

Maciej Sobczak <no.spam@no.spam.com> writes:

> Let's say that I would like to write an Ada program that uses sockets
> and compile and run it on my Linux box.
>
> There three ways to do this that I'm aware of:
>
> 1. Use GNAT runtime library. The advantage is that it will be
> portable to other platforms (as long as GNAT and its library is
> portable there).

This is the one I would go for. Linux/Windows/Mac OS X/Solaris/[Alpha
UNIX]/VxWorks ...

> 2. Use C interfacing and call the system functions directly. The
> advantage is that it will be portable to other compilers on the same
> platform (no dependency on GNAT run-time libs).

Which other Ada compilers were you thinking of using on Linux? and
anyway interfacing to other languages might be one of the less
portable aspects.

> 3. Use Florist. The disadvantage is that I'm too lazy to install it
> (it's another package) and I don't want to impose this requirement
> on other lazy users of the same code.

No experience. But we would have had much trouble justifying an
external package without vendor support if the vendor package was
'good enough' (and GNAT.Sockets is certainly that, even if not
feature-free).