Re: Compiling GNAT GPL 2006 into GCC 4.1.1

[Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@acm.org>]

"deadlyhead" <s.brutzman@gmail.com> writes:

> This is my first attempt at actually compiling GNAT, so I'm coming here
> for any insight into the process.

Welcome to the wonderful world of experimental compilation :).

> AdaCore only provides information on building their release sources
> into the 3.4.6 series GCC release, with absolutely no information on
> the 4.x series of compilers.  

I'm an AdaCore paying customer. They are currently conducting a beta
test for GNAT on gcc 4.1. It's pretty broken; I've submitted three
serious bugs so far, and I'm not done running all my tests yet.

> The sane route is likely to say, ``Alright, I'll just go ahead and
> use GCC 3.4.6 for GNAT and 4.1.1 otherwise,'' but I really can't
> stand the thought of having two GCC builds around like that, where I
> could instead have a beautifully integrated environment. 

Integrated, but broken.

Anyway, I thought Linux did a good job of allowing multiple versions
of gcc to coexist? (I use Cygwin on Windows).

> On top of that, I hate the thought of being forced to use obsolete
> technology, either an old GCC or Ada95 when an Ada 2005/2006
> compiler is available.

If the "latest" technology is broken, then the "older" technology is
"current", not "obsolete"!

GNAT-GPL-2006 is based on gcc 3.4.1; it is a pretty complete
implementation of Ada 2005.

> Now, normally I'd just go for it, replacing files in the GCC tree with
> the AdaCore files where necessary (ada directory, etc), however there
> are specific .dif files and such provided for the 3.4 GCC which most
> assuredly do not work with GCC 4.1.1.  As I imagine this could create
> serious problems, I'm hesitant to just give it a go.

I haven't tried it, but you are correct to hesitate.

> I'd like to know if anyone on this list has attempted integrating GNAT
> GPL 2006 into their GCC 4.1.1 builds, and if so, were they successful?

I have not compiled from scratch, but AdaCore has, with the broken
result.

> Is there any information regarding the matter available on the web?
> (Extensive searching of this news group as well as much Googling
> have proven somewhat fruitless.) Does anybody know of any attempts
> by the GCC team to integrate GNAT 2006 sources into GCC in the near
> future (possibly series 4.2)?

I'm sure AdaCore will be integrating their changes once they are done
beta testing, but as usual, they don't advertise a schedule. I would
guess sometime around January 2007.

-- 
-- Stephe