Re: Ada on Apple's new procesors

[Optikos <ZUERCHER_Andreas@outlook.com>]

On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 11:35:09 AM UTC-5, Simon Wright wrote:
> "Luke A. Guest" writes:
> 
> > My options are:
> >
> > 1) Write and Ada compiler.
> > 2) Develop my own language without Ada or GNAT's baggage.
> > 3) Find another language.
> 
> Isn't there an option 0, carry on using GCC?

Yes, option 0 would support only Apple's Intel-based products (and perhaps still support PowerPC-based defunct products), not the new ARM-based Mac, which is the entire point of OP.  Without GNAT-LLVM, no Ada compiler from any vendor on the new ARM-based Mac nor on iOS/iPadOS devices.  So that is why 2 prior authors omitted option 0:  because it is effectively a degenerate inferior not-quite-a-full-option.

> As a side note, the README.md in gnat-llvm says "This is a
> work-in-progress research project that’s not meant for and shouldn’t be
> used for industrial purposes. It’s meant to show the feasibility of
> generating LLVM bitcode for Ada and to open the LLVM ecosystem to Ada,
> including tools such as KLEE."

It is because of this warning, that I cannot place much trust in AdaCore firmly disclaiming the legal matter of generated executables or DLLs (that link to the runtime) ending up pure GPLed under some usages of LLVM opt, especially certain plug-ins, plus perhaps some other complicating Compilation Process that violates a subtle obligatory term in meeting the stricter Elligibile Compilation Process in the RLE.