Open-Source Ada: From Gateware to Application

Posted2 months agoActive2 months ago

Bogdanp

63 points

11 comments

blog.adacore.comTechstory

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Ada Programming LanguageOpen-SourceEmbedded SystemsFpga

Key topics

Ada Programming Language

Open-Source

Embedded Systems

Fpga

The post showcases the capabilities of open-source Ada in developing applications from gateware to high-level software, sparking interest and questions about the language's licensing and applicability.

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Moderate engagement

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01Story posted
Nov 1, 2025 at 11:21 AM EDT
2 months ago
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02First comment
Nov 1, 2025 at 3:33 PM EDT
4h after posting
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7 comments in 4-6h
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04Latest activity
Nov 2, 2025 at 8:05 PM EST
2 months ago
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Discussion (11 comments)

Showing 11 comments

no_wizard

2 months ago

4 replies

This is specifically for hardware. Looks really cool!

I’ve always been confused about Ada the language and its licensing though. I know this project is open source but is the language as well? It’s unclear to me, though I may be missing information

tremon

2 months ago

2 replies

What do you mean with "is the language open source"? The Ada specification is public [0] but not open source -- but the C and C++ specifications are not open source either, in the normal sense of the term. And like with C and C++, there are both open source and proprietary compilers for Ada, see e.g. [1]

What's mostly not open source (FAFAIK) is SPARK, the formal verification framework for Ada.

[0] https://www.adaic.org/ada-resources/standards/ada22/

[1] https://github.com/ohenley/awesome-ada#compilers

i-con

2 months ago

1 reply

SPARK tools are also open source. The main tool `gnatprove` is based on GCC as well. https://github.com/AdaCore/spark2014

It's not a community project, AFAICT. Few people know how to build it from source.

tremon

2 months ago

1 reply

That links gives me a 404. Does it require membership of some organization before you're allowed to view it?

edit: did you mean https://github.com/AdaCore/spark2014 ?

i-con

2 months ago

Sorry, yes 2014. Fixed it.

RossBencina

2 months ago

1 reply

The C++ (draft) standards are open source:

https://github.com/cplusplus/draft

Last time I looked I could not find an equivalent repository for the C standards.

AlotOfReading

2 months ago

1 reply

There isn't one. They publish completed drafts on the working group website:

https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/wg14_document_lo...

RossBencina

2 months ago

.pdf unfortunately. The C++ sources that I linked to are machine readable .tex.

pjmlp

2 months ago

Just as open as COBOL, Fortran, C and C++.

As ISO standards driven language with multiple implementations, commercial and open source ones.

The open source one is part of GCC.

i-con

2 months ago

If you are looking for an open-source compiler, many distros (e.g. Archlinux, Debian and derivatives) bootstrap a full GCC (GNU compiler collection). Sometimes you have to install a particular packet, e.g. `gnat` or `gcc-ada`. There's also a language-specific packet tool `alire` that seems to aim to be somewhat like cargo. It can also install toolchains, IIRC.

homarp

2 months ago

you have GNAT https://www.getadanow.com/ which is part of GNU compilers

some discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27313294

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