16-bit Ada for MS-DOS?

16-bit Ada for MS-DOS?

[Victor B. Putz]

Here's a curious question.

I'm working with some students writing small tasks for a microsatellite 
in an aeronautical engineering course.  Their Computer Science 
curriculum has taught them only Ada (apart from a brief survey of four 
different languages (C, Java, Scheme, Prolog) in a "paradigms" course).

The platform in use is based on a Nec V53 chip running a proprietary OS, 
so the development environment is 16-bit C (or C++), compiled in small 
memory model using MS Visual C++ version "Old" (the command-line 
compiler is version 8.00c, from 1993 or so), and linked with several 
small-model libraries.

I'm not sure I could even get the change approved if there WAS a 
solution, but is there a way to compile Ada for 16-bit C and linkable 
with MS small-memory-model C libraries?  I've looked a bit at gnat and 
GCC, but I can't see how to specify a target like that...

-->VPutz

Re: 16-bit Ada for MS-DOS?

[tmoran]

>solution, but is there a way to compile Ada for 16-bit C and linkable
>with MS small-memory-model C libraries?  I've looked a bit at gnat and
  Randy at RR Software (www.rrsoftware.com) has a 16 bit DOS Ada 83 compiler.
(I recently resurrected my copy to write a floppy bootable program to
read a corrupted Windows NTFS hard disk.  Runs a lot faster on modern
hardware. :)

Re: 16-bit Ada for MS-DOS?

[Jeffrey Carter]

Victor B. Putz wrote:

> I'm not sure I could even get the change approved if there WAS a 
> solution, but is there a way to compile Ada for 16-bit C and linkable 
> with MS small-memory-model C libraries?  I've looked a bit at gnat and 
> GCC, but I can't see how to specify a target like that...

S. Tucker Taft's company, SofCheck, has an Ada-to-ANSI-C compiler that 
should produce C that your C compiler could process. STT's e-mail 
address is stt-at-sofcheck-dot-com. (I haven't noted him posting here 
recently, so I've obsured the address.)

RR Software has a 16-bit DOS compiler available, if that will run on 
your target. Randy Brukardt is the contact there (randy@rrsoftware.com).

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Sir Robin the-not-quite-so-brave-as-Sir-Lancelot,
who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor,
who nearly stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol,
and who had personally wet himself at the
Battle of Badon Hill."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
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