John L. Ries wrote:
A Wirthian language like Ada would probably work better as an interediate language, [...]
The difference between Wirthian languages and C-like languages is, AFAICT, error-checking. In our case, error-checking is done in the frontend, so we don't win anything here.
Anyway, the backend is step 2. Right now, as you wrote, you don't have time to wade through the GPC source code written in C. But when we are ready for step 2, the GPC frontend will be Pascal code. Then maybe you can attach an Ada backend by yourself.
Given the similarities between Pascal and Ada, how feasible would it be to adapt the existing GNAT codebase to compile Pascal, instead of Ada?
Last time I looked at GNAT, they used the GCC backend. Unless this has changed, going that road would not solve our problems.
Peter