I don't regret that GHDL is written in Ada at all - it is a brilliant language with some real strengths, plus it's close similarity with VHDL makes it much easier for VHDL engineers to pick up than C/C++. GCC/Gnat can still compile a mix of Ada and C/C++ anyway so using either one does not stop you from interfacing to the other.
Just because C/C++ are popular does not make them the best language to use for a given job. There is an Ada port of GTK if graphical front-ends are required. As far as System C and System Verilog go, I think it better to have a really good VHDL simulator (like GHDL) than a mediocre simulator having a go at implementing bits of equivalent languages. As an amusing side note, a few years ago I heard a former chief technologist of Mentor Graphics say that System Verilog gave Verilog all the things that VHDL had from the start. Would adding system C / System verilog capability make GHDL that much more useful to that many people. Why Python scripting - most commercial simulators use TCL - this would be a far better choice if GHDL was to incorporate a scripting interface. Anyway, I'm not trying to fan the flames of a language war with that anecdote - just to say that I think it's better to concentrate development of GHDL as a really good VHDL simulator than try to make it the jack of all trades and master of none - if it's going to branch out then it can do regardless of the language it's written in - Ada gives a lot of benefits and saves Tristan a lot of bug fixing due to buffer overruns, bad type conversions and all the congenital problems that come with C/C++. -----Original Message----- From: Sylvere Teissier <[email protected]> Reply-to: GHDL discuss list <[email protected]> To: GHDL discuss list <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Ghdl-discuss] what to do to become a ghdl developer Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:06:41 +0100 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 07/01/2011 06:23, [email protected] wrote: > GHDL is written in ADA and uses the GNU toolchain. so be ready to > dive into a lot of arcane and intricate concepts. Learn to make > your own compiler before you hack someone else's ! > I regret that GHDL is not written in C or C++. C/C++ would bring more developers and it would allow easier extension of the simulation core: python scripting and verification, SystemC interface, embedded Qt GUI frontend, LLVM backend... But GHDL has about 100k line of code. It would take too much time to convert it to C++ :( IMHO, GHDL + System C + Python (for verification) can be an excellent open source alternative to very expensive verification environment based on System Verilog. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJNNWYxAAoJENlXRqSDmxB9qHEIAKH+/i49ON6E1VcbhpCmEvM5 I4sNDDSYAqZG1cd9gb03yXz+W6KSn9zLhEJndGCOHYotMM8GDYyN3hWhwcnBjWCF 2wk/Oehchx1A5kSTvbmSi/Li1XHywVXS3sbTVlP7e8WXC/viMd7vkbOmpDvOuhf7 31sCyNft7yomQD0mK6rrjJYHVr4C9ScqtBE9W77PSwNipPkzmxW9fIKtuxSvHrQf a+2kq+HfpdTO15ik1g7FKuVO9TEXx7dVfnBf+fTBN0k9FsnBJuIblpSJZ+Fz3Y9s FOqs+jNDijYxnKDKacyzkH0xdL0ZuV+1O0GkCaZgNwES5LnjXKirx9KyszzrV0M= =pula -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Ghdl-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/ghdl-discuss
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