Guideline to Select, Configure, and Use an Ada Runtime Environment
Abstract
The Ada Language has incorporated many features such as tasking, dynamic storage management, and exception handling that require substantial execution-time support. Most of these features were not previously available in commonly used real-time languages, but were instead provided by an separate executive. The inclusion of these features into the language expands the possibility for transportable and reusable software, but complicates the software development process to some degree. Engineers that previously had familiarity with their own executives, now are forced to accept the code of a compiler vendor for the execution-time support. This guide has been written to help software developers in the difficult task of selecting, configuring, and using a runtime that will meet the needs of their application. The wide variety of applications for which Ada is used necessitates considerable flexibility within the implementation of the runtime code. Different algorithms for tasking, storage management, interrupt handling, and exception propagation can radically effect the behavior of real-time programs. Variations among compilers for the same processor can be as great as a factor of six in runtime size and factor of eleven in tasking performance. It is therefore essential that software developers completely understand the characteristics of the available runtimes prior to selecting one for use on a project.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 15, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA223086