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Re: Ada files now checked in
- To: bosch at gnat dot com, zack at codesourcery dot com
- Subject: Re: Ada files now checked in
- From: dewar at gnat dot com
- Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 11:06:41 -0400 (EDT)
- Cc: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org, kenner at vlsi1 dot ultra dot nyu dot edu
<<Also, if it will result in a significant simplification of the build
process, it may be worth rewriting these tools in C.
>>
Maybe, but that's quite a bit of work. They are originally written using
powerful pattern matching of SNOBOL4. This translates directly into Ada,
using the GNAT.Spitbol.Patterns unit which provides exactly SNOBOL4
semantics pattern matching capabilities in Ada.
That does not mean that it is impossible to rewrite these in C, but
it would introduce a definite additional burden of keeping these C
tools in sync with the Ada ones (they do change every now and then
when e.g. the form of the tree changes enough to affect these tools).
Given that GNAT in any case needs "foreign" executables (namely gnat1),
then at worst we can simply provide these executables wherever we provide
the starter gnat1 binaries for the bootstrap.
I still think we should be able to build these without too much difficulty
as part of the build process. TBD
Robert