IA64 bootstrap problem for Ada

[Zack Weinberg]

kenner@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) writes:

>     > In Ada, the sizes of primitive types are static and hence known by the
>     > front end.  They get them from the _TYPE_SIZE values.
>
>     That's what needs to change.  Lay out the types first, then extract
>     the numbers from the TYPE_SIZE fields.
>
> You can't.  You need to know the sizes *before* you layout anything.  As
> I said, it's "static".  That's the whole point.

I don't understand why static from the point of view of the program
being compiled translates to "has to be known before you layout anything."

>     I'm not sure I understand what is meant by "when given a size value
>     for an FP type."  Does Ada allow the programmer to specify the desired
>     storage size of a floating point type, as a number of bits?  
>
> Yes.  The programmer can specify the number of digits and the size in bits.
> Indeed that's the *only* way to specify the desired FP type.

I suppose number of digits could be used to disambiguate, but as I
said in my earlier message, size-in-bits is intrinsically ambiguous
for ia64.

zw