Re: Creating tempfile takes too long: GNAT or Windows bug?

[Preben Randhol <randhol+news@pvv.org>]

Marin David Condic wrote:
> I was thinking more along the linds of this: "I have a c compiler. My OS is
> written in C. The C function interfaces are sitting right there. Hack a
> program to make an OS call or two..." That as opposed to: "I have an Ada
> compiler. My OS is written in C. I've got to play around with building a
> binding to whatever it is I need from the OS or at least use some binding
> that may be there and is "unnatural" for Ada (can't just use strings and
> integers and such - got to go create pointers and things from Interfaces.C).
> It becomes more work, so why didn't I just hack the little job in C?"

But if one has Gnat (which is freely available) the bindings you needed
in this case were available. So no problem :-)

> It may not be a far stretch to hack a lot of things in Ada - I've done it
> enough times myself. I'm just observing that people have a tendency to go
> down the path of least resistance and if everything surrounding you is C,
> its less likely that the job is going to be done in Ada.

Well I find it easier and faster to hack things with Ada. Even using
strings is easier.

> Note that this works two ways - if the OS and everything surrounding it is
> in Ada, it would be less likely one would end up doing things in C, right?
> ;-)

:-) Hope so.
> 
> I suppose, but if you had the Gnat code, chances are you have Gnat so why
> would you be using another compiler? Its not so much an issue of a portable
> library for Ada and no insistance on a portable library for C. Its more a
> case of observing that when the surrounding environment is done with a given
> language, it tends to promote use of that language. Although, to whatever
> extend Ada can provide a portable library of things to interface to the
> native OS, the better off it is, I think.

Yes, I understand, but still...

Preben
-- 
Ada95 is good for you.
http://libre.act-europe.fr/Software_Matters/02-C_pitfalls.pdf