Re: p2c (dave gillespie's pas to c converter) & VMS pascal

Bob Koehler wrote: 
In article <W4KdnciUOcqRH0LeRVn-jQ@xxxxxxxxxx>, Dave Froble <davef@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Fixing something that ain't broke, such as a re-write in (hawk, spit) C, seems to me to be a totally worthless redundant effort. But if a "time-critical real-time application" on a "linux webserver" is involved, I'm guessing anything goes. 


   Time-critical may not mean the same thing to all of us, just as
   real-time doesn't.

   When I say real-time, I mean "hard real-time" as in high interrupt
   rates and I/O devices that will not buffer.

I have interviewed folks from the nuclear power industry for which
real-time means "if it take 24 hours to melt down in real life, then it takes 24 hours to melt down in the simulation", and I can see
someone considering that to be a time-critical simulator.

My teacher in real-time programming presented about 7 definitions of real-time programming as kernel and driver programmers use the term. Then he demonstrated that all of them were flawed. Ken Olsen was once asked what a mini computer was, and the answer was that he could not define the term, but if you showed him a computer, he could tell if the computer was a mini computer or not. Along the same line I would say that I cannot define the term real-time, but show me a program, and I will tell you if it is a real-time program or not.
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