TenDRA Compiler
Encyclopedia
The TenDRA Compiler is a C/C++ compiler
for POSIX
-compatible operating system
s available under the terms of the BSD license.
It was originally developed by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency
(DERA) in the United Kingdom
.
In the beginning of 2002 TenDRA was actively developed again by Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven and offered as a BSD-licensed open source project through the website tendra.org. In the third quarter of 2002 the one-man effort was expanded to a small team.
In August 2003 TenDRA split into two projects, TenDRA.org and Ten15.org. Both projects petered out around 2006–2007.
The goals of TenDRA.org were:
The goals of Ten15.org were:
Features of both compilers include good error reporting with respect to standards compliance and a smaller code size than the same programs compiled on gcc
. C++ support never got as developed as C support, and there was no STL supporting release. TenDRA uses the Architecture Neutral Distribution Format
(ANDF), a specification created by the Open Group, as its intermediate language
.
At a point, most of the Alpha OSF/1 kernel could be built with TenDRA C and afterwards there was also a similar effort to port the FreeBSD
kernel.
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
for POSIX
POSIX
POSIX , an acronym for "Portable Operating System Interface", is a family of standards specified by the IEEE for maintaining compatibility between operating systems...
-compatible operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s available under the terms of the BSD license.
It was originally developed by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency
The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency was a part of the UK Ministry of Defence until July 2, 2001. At the time it was the United Kingdom's largest science and technology organisation...
(DERA) in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
In the beginning of 2002 TenDRA was actively developed again by Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven and offered as a BSD-licensed open source project through the website tendra.org. In the third quarter of 2002 the one-man effort was expanded to a small team.
In August 2003 TenDRA split into two projects, TenDRA.org and Ten15.org. Both projects petered out around 2006–2007.
The goals of TenDRA.org were:
- to continuously produce correct code,
- to ensure code correctness through various means, and
- to continuously improve the performance of the compiler and resulting code, unless it would jeopardize the points above.
The goals of Ten15.org were:
- to continuously produce correct code,
- to continuously improve the performance of the compiler and resulting code, unless it would jeopardise the point above,
- to create tools that facilitate programming, not to have programming facilitate the tools, and
- to be a friendly competitor to GCC in order to get a best-of-breed compiler.
Features of both compilers include good error reporting with respect to standards compliance and a smaller code size than the same programs compiled on gcc
GNU Compiler Collection
The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain...
. C++ support never got as developed as C support, and there was no STL supporting release. TenDRA uses the Architecture Neutral Distribution Format
Architecture Neutral Distribution Format
The Architecture Neutral Distribution Format is a technology allowing common "shrink wrapped" binary application programs to be distributed for use on conformant Unix systems, each of which might run on different underlying hardware platforms...
(ANDF), a specification created by the Open Group, as its intermediate language
Intermediate language
In computer science, an intermediate language is the language of an abstract machine designed to aid in the analysis of computer programs. The term comes from their use in compilers, where a compiler first translates the source code of a program into a form more suitable for code-improving...
.
At a point, most of the Alpha OSF/1 kernel could be built with TenDRA C and afterwards there was also a similar effort to port the FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
kernel.