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-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8a402d78988bdf2b X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-12-22 15:25:03 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!fu-berlin.de!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!skynet.be!skynet.be!louie!tjb!not-for-mail Sender: lbrenta@lbrenta Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GNU/Linux distro wars References: <%VlDb.5454$Pg1.1321@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net> From: Ludovic Brenta Date: 23 Dec 2003 00:25:00 +0100 Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: -= Belgacom Usenet Service =- NNTP-Posting-Host: 217.136.27.170 X-Trace: 1072135501 reader5.news.skynet.be 25088 217.136.27.170:41732 X-Complaints-To: usenet-abuse@skynet.be Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3726 Date: 2003-12-23T00:25:00+01:00 List-Id: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" writes: > I see the :) but I hope you don't see my post as a discouragement to > your efforts! Debian is a whole lot less work to install, so I don't > think Gentoo will every be everyone's choice. So in short, keep up > the good work! Far from discouraging me, your post prompted me to expedite my packaging of XML/Ada. So there. It's now on my repository at http://www.ada-france.org/debian and waiting for a sponsor. See, I'm not an official Debian developer yet. There is a lengthy screening process before anyone is coopted. > I haven't checked recently, but I haven't seen a stable >= > GNAT-3.15p release available for Debian (but I noticed that Gentoo > had it). The latest stable version of Debian is 17 months old and counting; the version of gnat in it is 3.14p. My package for gnat 3.15p is in unstable. Due to some dependency problems, it is currently waiting to go into testing. The dependencies are libgtkada1 and gvd; promoting gnat to testing would make them uninstallable. I am in touch with the maintainers to resolve this issue. BTW, does Gentoo have such a process for ensuring that the next stable version has as few dependency problems as possible? > I have to say, that on the whole, seeing increased GNAT/Ada support > in Linux is great. Packaged Ada support makes it easier for others > like me that want to share their own packages, without having to > worry about how to teach the end [non-Ada] users how to install the > components that your software may have dependancies for. Exactly; this is why I chose Debian over Gentoo. Debian is the ideal target platform for anyone developing software. It is rich, reliable, does not change too often (moving target syndrome), and very easy to administer for your customers, even in large-scale deployments. > How is the gcc-3.3 version >= gnat-3.15p in terms of passing the > ACATs tests? I've personally been avoiding the gcc-3.x series for my > own development until it stabilizes more. I seem to provoke enough > bugs in the stable versions of gnat without using something less > stable. My sponsor for Debian is one of the maintainers of gnat-3.2 and -3.3, so I won't bad-mouth it too much here. I have not tried the ACATS tests against 3.3, but I see that ACT have added them to the mainline for inclusion in 3.4. gnat-3.2 is there on all 11 platforms, but has received little testing and has many bugs. gnat-3.3 is there on all platforms except MIPS, and still has some bugs. One is that it doesn't provide a shared libgnat. Then there is trusty old gnat 3.15p, which is only available on 3 platforms (i386, sparc and powerpc) but offers reliablity and shared libraries. Several other packages rely on 3.15p; none on either 3.2 or 3.3. > Yes, I had problems with GPS also (it was looking for a libpng shared > library that Gentoo doesn't offer out of the box). Some of their > other packages are still in "bug" status at present. Furthermore, I note that the Gentoo ebuild for GPS is (a) out of date since it pertains to 1.2.2, and (b) relies on the upstream binary distribution from ACT, which only exists on i386 and is binary-incompatible with everything else since it was built with a recent GNAT Pro not available to the public. My Debian package is built from source using GNAT 3.15p on three platforms (i386, powerpc and sparc), links dynamically against libgnat and libgtkada2, has manual pages, and is up to date (1.4.0). I've boasted about it enough now :) > For the record, I haven't destroyed my debian instances just yet. > Both Debian and Gentoo have their own advantages and disadvantages. > I do however favour the compile everything from sources approach, > which seems to favour Gentoo. But overall, the jury is still out ;-) Yes, but you're an individual developer. I'm an individual developer, too, and I have recompiled my own packages several times, but I also appreciate the fact that Debian offers a reliable target platform for software, and solves distribution issues for corporations as well as for individuals. > I did a FreeBSD stint for a while (good for firewalls), but > the Ada support there seemed to be on the decline. Now Sam Tardieu might not like that. He is the former maintainer of several Ada packages for Debian, and he switched to FreeBSD where he maintains gnat among others. > If I ever get my next release of APQ out the door (perhaps after the > holiday season winds down), I would like to get APQ packaged for > both Debian and Gentoo. I think APQ represents the most painless way > to work with MySQL or PostgreSQL databases from Ada (and soon > Sybase, where supported). Shall I contact you directly by email? Definitely, yes. In fact, I have already done preliminary work to package APQ 2.1 for Debian, but found problems in the way you generate code from MySQL. OTOH, I've promised not to overtax my sponsor with too many new packages until Sarge is released. So I'll just take a vacation and we'll talk more about it next year. Cheers PS. I'm leaving to spend christmas and the new year in Lyon tomorrow morning. I probably won't be online often until I return on Jan 2. So, have a merry christmas and a happy new year y'all! -- Ludovic Brenta.