From:	Michael Feldman <mfeldman AT seas DOT gwu DOT edu>
Subject:	Re: Templates again
To:	havemann AT uran DOT informatik DOT uni-bonn DOT de (Sven A. Havemann)
Date:	Wed, 21 Dec 1994 19:00:44 -0500 (EST)
Cc:	djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu, havemann AT uran DOT informatik DOT uni-bonn DOT de

> 
> We are trying to implement intricate portable data structures on a net of PCs,
> Sun and SGI-machines. As we have many versions of gcc ranging from 2.5.8 to
> 2.6.2 on different machines I am very interested in a
> 
>                template mechanism that works.

At the risk of sending out flamebait or starting a language war, I'd
like to suggest that you take a look at GNAT, the GNU-NYU Ada 95 Translator.
What C++ calls "templates" have been stable in Ada for ten years; Ada 95
adds type extension and dynamic polymorphism for OO support. Exceptions,
also a new feature in C++, has been standard in Ada as well.

The Ada 95 standard has been approved by both ANSI and ISO, and is in
the ISO publication pipeline.  The standard is, and will continue to be,
a freely available document; ASCII, PostScript, and html versions are
available on the net (e-mail me for details).

GNAT can be ftp-ed from cs.nyu.edu, directory pub/gnat; it uses the gcc 
backend and is really integrated into gcc. Ports are done by cross-compiling
because GNAT is written in Ada 95 and not C. Ports currently exist for DOS, 
OS/2, SunOS, Solaris 2.x, Windows NT, Irix, etc.; the language supported is 
identical on all machines, of course.  

The current release shows some very interesting demonstrations of 
interoperability with C libraries and C++ classes; in particular, SGI 
has bought heavily into GNAT (both technically and financially) and has 
some very interesting Ada 95 and C++ things talking to each other.
I saw some quite impressive 2-language virtual-reality stuff at SGI's
exhibit at TRI-Ada in November.

You could build your portable data structures with GNAT, calling - or being
called by - C or C++ if necessary.

Try it - you may like it! Further discussion welcome by e-mail; I won't
take djgpp bandwidth on it unless there's a lot of interest.

Cheers -

Mike Feldman
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Michael B. Feldman -  chair, SIGAda Education Working Group
Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University -  Washington, DC 20052 USA
202-994-5919 (voice) - 202-994-0227 (fax) - mfeldman AT seas DOT gwu DOT edu (Internet)
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         Ada on the World-Wide Web: http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/
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