[Pkg-electronics-devel] Help with GHDL package

[Brian Drummond]

Thanks  Wesley for linking to this thread from 
https://mail.gna.org/public/ghdl-discuss/2013-05/msg00004.html

Joris wrote:
> I use GHDL often and I'd very much like to keep it as a Debian 
> package. I'm willing to check in regularly to keep the package in 
> sync with upstream development and with changes in the Debian archive.
>
> As Wesley implies, it is possible that this will again become much
> more difficult in the future if GHDL settles on a GCC version which is
> not available within Debian. However, I think we can decide how to 
> deal with that if and when it happens.
>
> I'm not a contributer to GHDL upstream. Since I have never programmed
> in Ada, there is not much that I can do in that area.

Heh, learning Ada turns out to be MUCH less of a problem than simply
finding one's way round the gcc source distribution!

I dug into GHDL as a way of getting to grips with a meaty Ada project,
and I find most of the work is in the tiny C (now C++) layer between it
and the rest of GCC.

But anyway, a big problem with recent GHDL versions has been the need
for gcc and gnat at the same version : and ghdl has been a big headache
for the Gnat maintainers because it has prevented them from abandoning
4.3/4.4.

Now the intention (I hear) is to bring Gnat back into sync at 4.8 though
I don't know the actual timescale. Meanwhile I'm trying to bring GHDL up
to date with 4.8 - it's not done yet.

--------------------------------

Meanwhile, thank you Joris for contributing the unofficial Debian
packages. I would suggest updating them with the patch at
https://gna.org/bugs/download.php?file_id=17858
see discussion at
https://gna.org/bugs/index.php?20769
because I think that supporting OSVVM and constrained random
verification is a useful extension to GHDL's relevance.

I will update as (or if!) I succeed with gcc4.8

- Brian