RE: Embedded Ada Development Tools

["Robert C. Leif" <rleif@rleif.com>]

From: Bob Leif
To: Marin Condic et al.
The simplest way to port Ada to a small processor is to use a J code
compiler. This is absolutely not a new idea. It goes back to at least
UCSD Pascal. 

The best approach would be to a have a native J code processor which
included an ADC, DAC, watch-dog timer, and USB port. 

-----Original Message-----
From: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org
[mailto:comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org] On Behalf Of Marin David Condic
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 9:55 AM
To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
Subject: Re: Embedded Ada Development Tools

I've seen Ada for 16-bit processors, but you're point is taken. Most Ada
implementations target 32-bit or bigger machines and while this is nice
for
some of the more grandiose projects, its not where most of the little
commercial things live. And of course, even if it were possible to get
an
Ada compiler to target some small 8-bit processor, we'd still be stuck
with
that chicken-and-egg problem. Developers have no Ada compiler for these
targets from which to choose, so their interests go elsewhere to what
they
can get. (Generally, C)Compiler-writers won't make something for that
target
because its a lot of work and they don't see any interested developers
to
justify the work.  Such lack of compilers leads the developers to
conclude
that it isn't possible to get Ada targeted to their processors and fuels
a
lot of the misconceptions about Ada (too slow, too big, etc.)

Maybe the correct answer is to do what seems to be the current direction
-
get Ada used in more PC/Workstation apps where the targeting job is a
bit
easier and as it gets more popular in this domain, it starts making it
easier to justify targeting more embedded targets because of programmer
familiarity, development of tools, etc.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"John Kern" <jkern3@NOSPAM.visteon.com> wrote in message
news:3CFE29BB.A7D22E77@NOSPAM.visteon.com...
>
> I suspect a lot of embedded projects start off small, (8/16-bit) and
> eventually graduate to the 32-bitters where switching to Ada would
> involve abandoning proven legacy C code.  Ada seems to be mostly for
> markets which have always though big (like aerospace) as opposed to
the
> industries started small (like automotive.)
>