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=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,TO_NO_BRKTS_FROM_MSSP autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,36288d1c39303ceb X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-21 08:57:48 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Ted Dennison References: <3B296913.1F13E65D@engineer.com> <3B2AE5F4.59E4ABE8@engineer.com> Subject: Re: Porting GNAT to Debian Hurd Message-ID: X-Abuse-Info: When contacting newsranger.com regarding abuse please X-Abuse-Info: forward the entire news article including headers or X-Abuse-Info: else we will not be able to process your request X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsranger.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 11:57:18 EDT Organization: http://www.newsranger.com Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 15:57:18 GMT Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!feed.textport.net!news.bnb-lp.com!newsranger.com!www.newsranger.com!not-for-mail Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8982 Date: 2001-06-21T15:57:18+00:00 List-Id: In article , Charles Hixson says... > >Exposing my ignorance: >When I first encountered Algol, I discovered that the basic >specs were an Algol compiler that was written in a simple form >of Algol. This seemed quite strange, but I was told that it was .. >This seems to be the root of the problem here. The underlying >compiler for the language that GNAT is written in isn't some >small stripped down subset. It's Ada. So you need a complete >compiler to build a compiler. I suppose that cross- This isn't just some strange coincidence. Just about *every* compiler works that way. GCC certianly does (you need a C compiler to compile it. My first run at it I used the Sun C compiler, then bootstrapped using the resulting gcc compiler). It may put your mind at rest a bit to know that: o There *is* an Ada compiler that outputs ANSI C (Intermetrics). o Gnat does *not* use every feature in the language in its own sources, so you don't really need a full Ada 95 compiler. o Anyone with the technical chops to port GNAT to a new platform shouldn't have too much trouble figuring out how to build and use a GNAT cross-compiler. o The good folks at ACT are looking at providing bootstraping binaries for some platforms already. (see http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2001-06/msg01055.html ) --- T.E.D. homepage - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html home email - mailto:dennison@telepath.com