Re: Questions about Ada Core Technologies

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@comcast.net>]

Peter Hermann wrote:

> I report a sad reaction from ACT:
> I wanted to pay for a gnat3.15-compiler on my pet machine DECalpha
> where I am frozen at gnat3.12p
> without any need of support
> but ACT rejected the deal.
> Maybe DECalphaTrue64 is particularly difficult for the GNAT-compiler?

No, they probably don't want to get drawn in to supporting older 
versions of the compiler.  If they fixed a bug in 3.15 for you, would 
they also fix it in 3.15p?

However, if you really want a 3.15p compiler on you DEC Alpha, get the 
3.13p, 3.14p, and 3.15p sources and build it.  It may not be necessary 
to go through the intermediate compiler versions, but I think the time 
you would save would not be worth it.  You also may want to run the 
ACATS test suite against each version to look for regressions.

The whole process might take a week, but if you set up a different 
account for it, your involvement could be just a few hours worth.  For 
each iteration, you are going to be compiling the compiler and test 
suite twice.  Having a script set up to do that should allow you to do 
one iteration a day, with your involvement being checking on progress, 
and seeing if there are any regressions to worry about.  (You could also 
have to worry about different GCC versions.  Same procedure, different 
compilers.)

-- 

                                           Robert I. Eachus

"The terrorist enemy holds no territory, defends no population, is 
unconstrained by rules of warfare, and respects no law of morality. Such 
an enemy cannot be deterred, contained, appeased or negotiated with. It 
can only be destroyed--and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the business 
at hand."  -- Dick Cheney