Subject: Re: Ada
To: None <port-hp300@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Louis C. Watta <watta@rtp.gtegsc.com>
List: port-hp300
Date: 02/27/1997 07:48:49
The DoD does not have to use ADA they just stongly suggest it. Depending
on your contract, you might be able to weasle out of it. If you can
prove that Ada won't work, or it will work better in C,C++, whatever.
This has been a big problem for us. Many companies provide a C or C++
interface but no Ada. So you end up writing Ada bindings or wrappers
around C code to meet requirements. There is just no incentive for
companies to write Ada API's, no money in it. The government has not
really financed Ada95. They have not thrown enough money at it to
encourage companies to create Ada hooks. One of the biggest problems we
are running into is DCE and Ada95. Now DCE has a C interface, We are
attempting to use Ada95 with DCE. C++ and C mix well, object oriented
Ada and C mix like water and oil, They don't! I'd love to tell you more
but they would probably shoot me if I do.



I'll get off my soap box now.


Anyway, 

There's the GNAT compiler from gnu, and I believe some  fine people at
NYU created a Ada95 type compiler off gnat. I don't beleive it is a
certified Ada95 compiler. In fact I think there is only one certified
Ada95 compiler in the world and that would be Alsys/Thompson/Aonics or
whatever they are calling themselves today. Just do a search through
yahoo on Ada95 and it should return some links.



Louis Watta
watta@rtp.gtegsc.com
GTE Government Systems,    RTP, NC USA






Stefan Schaeckeler wrote:
> 
> Hello Netbsd-World,
> 
> * THE REAL MESSAGE
> Is there an Ada 95 compiler for hp300/netbsd?
> Hey what's with you Jason, you are working at ...click, click,
> 
> Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
> NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
> NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
> Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939
> 
> I suppose that if the DOD uses Ada (because they have to use it, because
> they financed it) then NASA uses Ada, too.
> 
> * APPENDIX 1
> I suppose I have the same problem like the most of us have: I want to get
> rid of that Intel PC, but sometimes I _have_ to use it because there is
> _no_ alternative. There is no real haskell 1.3 available just hugs, there
> is no Ada 95 available (just C), there is no java available (just C++),
> I have problems with xfig 3.1 (not 2.1) (it crashes X11 probably because
> I have only 64 colors), there is no gimp, there is no ...
> And sometimes (really sometimes, I promise !) it is convinient to use a
> Windows 3.1 WYSIWYsometimesG Wordprocessor rather than \latex.
> 
> * APPENDIX 2
> I hope everybody has read BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell). It is really
> sooooo cool that I promise you will read these ~110KByte in just one night.
> The original link is
> http://prime-mover.cc.waikato.ac.nz/Bastard.html
> if the link is too slow try my local copy:
> http://tick.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/~schaecsn/bofh.txt.gz
> (beware of german translations: they ain't cool)
> 
> * FINALE
> -- Stefan, UNIX till I die