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From: "Vladimir Olensky" <vladimir_olensky@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: off-topic ...
Date: 1999/11/19
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 <38336E5A.D744214E@australia.boeing.com> <812o0p$1n7$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
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Date: 1999-11-19T00:00:00+00:00
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Robert Dewar wrote in message <812o0p$1n7$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...

> Each new version of GNAT has many valuable new features.
> Here is a little preview of some new features in the next version
>of GNAT for example:


>
>  The NT version of GNAT now generates object files that are
>  fully compatible with the standard Microsoft linker, so this
>  linker can be used instead of the GNU ld program to build NT
>  executables.


This would be  a great leap forward  on the NT platform !!!
Ability to work with the platform native linker would give a
lot of advantages.
I understand that this also would make it much simpler to
build DLLs.

Will  there be an option to tell GNAT which linker to use ?

One of the very important  advantages would also be the ability to
remove unreferenced  code in the executable, provided that
GNAT compiler would have the  option  that allows the compiler
to package individual  functions in  the form of packaged
functions (COMDATs). MS linker  requires that functions be
packaged separately as COMDATs to exclude or order individual
functions in a DLL or .EXE file.

Then we will be able to use the MS linker's /OPT:REF option to exclude
unreferenced packaged functions from the .EXE file.

After that GNAT will be highly competitive with other software development
tools for WinNT ( including MSVC itself).

Another great feature would be direct support of Pentium II and above
streaming SIMD extensions and MMXT technology which is extremely
important in signal processing.
Now one need to use assembler to be able to use that  in Ada.

Regards,
Vladimir Olensky