Re: Ada policy

[Robert Dewar <dewar at gnat dot com>]

Geoffrey Keating wrote:

> 1. Since the Ada compiler cannot be bootstrapped from most system
>    compilers, it must be at least as easy, if not easier, to
>    cross-compile it from a system which does have GNAT installed.  At
>    a minimum, it must be possible to easily build a cross Ada compiler
>    for the other system, even when the other target is a host
>    (including hosts for which binutils is not readily available, like
>    AIX and Darwin), and then use that to build a native Ada compiler
>    for the other system.

We build cross compilers all the time, in fact Richard does virtually
all his debugging on an opteron using cross-compilers for all other
targets.
> 2. Since the Ada compiler and tools must be installed in binary form
>    on the other system (because there is no compiler to build it from
>    source), they must be fully relocatable, that is they must be able to
>    be installed in any location; because the person doing the
>    installation may not be able (or willing) to write it to /usr/local
>    or wherever it was originally built for.  (I know the C compilers
>    already do this, I am not sure if it really works for Ada).

GNAT can be installed anywhere, that's not a problem.