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Sender:
"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
"W. Wesley Groleau x4923" <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 9 Sep 1999 13:53:03 -0500
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Reply-To:
"W. Wesley Groleau x4923" <[log in to unmask]>
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> A program to convert C header files to Ada packages is, in my opinion, a
> critical need for gaining acceptance of Ada.  The argument "It is too hard
> to switch back and forth to convert by hand; I'll just use C" is too
> compelling.

Writing 1,000 lines of C might be better than writing 500 lines of Ada
plus 1,000 lines of Ada binding.  But the argument degenerates from "too
compelling" to "too stupid" when one uses it to justify writing 6,000
lines of C instead of 3,000 lines of Ada and a KSLOC Ada binding.  (Is the
typical Ada binding even that big?)

> The program "c2ada" seems to be the only available tool for this purpose.
> But there is seemingly no vendor support for this tool (if I am wrong,
> please correct me).  Why is this the case?
> I have not been able to get the tool to work.  I could understand the lack
> of need for support if the tool was trivial to use and had no bugs.  But
> unless I am making some really simple mistake (always possible), it is not
> trivial to use correctly.

The c2ada Web page at Intermetrics listed Python and some other things as
prerequisites.  Python downloaded and built as per instructions, and
seemed to work.  But all the other prerequisites failed to even build when
I followed their instructions.  Had to find one of them by Web search
because the hyperlink was stale.

But, you get what you pay for.  :-)

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