From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,583275b6950bf4e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,59ec73856b699922 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,5f529c91be2ac930 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-08 14:33:02 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed!nntp.TheWorld.com!not-for-mail From: Robert A Duff Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Using Ada for device drivers? (Was: the Ada mandate, and why it collapsed and died) Date: 08 May 2003 17:33:00 -0400 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Message-ID: References: <9fa75d42.0304230424.10612b1a@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305020516.bdba239@posting.google.com> <82347202.0305021418.4719da45@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305060521.400f1d80@posting.google.com> <82347202.0305061103.2ddd98e4@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305070504.6866e7a3@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305070929.2d7a0d4c@posting.google.com> <9fa75d42.0305081222.623e0b31@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: shell01.theworld.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: pcls4.std.com 1052429581 24080 199.172.62.241 (8 May 2003 21:33:01 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@TheWorld.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 21:33:01 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.java.advocacy:63349 comp.object:63020 comp.lang.ada:37078 Date: 2003-05-08T17:33:00-04:00 List-Id: softeng3456@netscape.net (soft-eng) writes: > Free compilers for other languages were available, too. > And Unix was never the only OS around (in its range), there > were OS's from DEC, DG etc. Most of those were tied to particular hardware. I think Unix succeeded, in part, because it was more portable. I think it's fair to say that a large part of the success of C was in riding on the coattails of Unix. >... Many of these were > popular at unis. And I could be mistaken, but I > thought even Unix had an "f77" compiler included in > the distribution, there was no need to buy it separately. Unix was written in C. The language in which an OS is written _shouldn't_ matter, but in the case of Unix it does. All the interfaces to the OS are defined in C (as .h files). And they use data structures that are natural to define in C. So if you choose a different language, you have extra headaches interfacing to the OS. Some of those interfaces are macros. It's not that easy to call a C macro from a Fortran or Ada program! (Actually, one of our (SofCheck's) Ada compiler's generates C, and in that compiler, you *can* call C macros from Ada, using pragma Import. But most compilers don't support that.) - Bob