C++ to Ada 95 "thin" binding generator?

C++ to Ada 95 "thin" binding generator?

[Matthew Phillips]

Hi all,

I am a proponent of Ada 95, but I also realise that there is a LOT of
C++ code out there.  One thing that has occurred to me is that an
automatic C++ to Ada 95 "thin" binding generator would allow a lot of
C++ code to be used from within Ada 95 programs.  It wouldn't be as
good as having a hand-coded binding, but at least it would mean we
don't miss out on some of the good C++ libraries out there.

I've looked at the FAQ's and various web pages and drawn a blank.
Does anyone know of such a utility or of someone that is working on
one?  Any help much appreciated,

MPP.

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 Matthew Phillips <mathew.phillips@dsto.defence.gov.au>
 Defence Science and Technology Organisation,
 Salisbury, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
 Ph: +61 08 259 6236            Fax: +61 08 259 5589

Re: C++ to Ada 95 "thin" binding generator?

[Robert Dewar]

Matthew says

"I am a proponent of Ada 95, but I also realise that there is a LOT of
C++ code out there.  One thing that has occurred to me is that an
automatic C++ to Ada 95 "thin" binding generator would allow a lot of
C++ code to be used from within Ada 95 programs.  It wouldn't be as
good as having a hand-coded binding, but at least it would mean we
don't miss out on some of the good C++ libraries out there."

There are two issues here.

First you need to architect the Ada 95 compiler so that interface to
C++ is smooth.

GNAT implements a number of pragmas for this purpose, and when these
pragmas are used, it is possible to map Ada tagged types exactly into
C++ classes.

So this is the raw material for a C++ interface, then you need a binding
generator.

SGI currently has developed such a tool internally, which they have used
to provide bindings for many of their large libraries such as Inventor,
but they have not yet released this tool for external use (it is still
under development).

Re: C++ to Ada 95 "thin" binding generator?

[Mitch Gart]

At TriAda '95 there was a presentation by Tom Quiggle of Silicon
Graphics about "adabindgen", a binding generator tool that does
about what you described.  There was no paper in the conference
proceedings, just a presentation about this tool, which was a 
"work in progress" and not yet a released product.  You might
try sending a message to Tom at quiggle@lovelace.wpd.sgi.com.

Re: C++ to Ada 95 "thin" binding generator?

[Scott Leschke]

dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:

>SGI currently has developed such a tool internally, which they have used
>to provide bindings for many of their large libraries such as Inventor,
>but they have not yet released this tool for external use (it is still
>under development).

Might anybody know if SGI intends to release this to the public domain or
make this part of their commercial environment?
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