Re: Newbie Needs Ada Advice

[ezkcdude <zamir.evan@gmail.com>]

Thanks, Dmitry! That was helpful.
-evan

On May 3, 1:24 pm, "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail...@dmitry-kazakov.de>
wrote:
> On 3 May 2007 10:13:38 -0700, ezkcdude wrote:
>
> > I'm interested in using Ada, so I installed the GNAT compiler on
> > Windows (tried on Mac, but I had problems with X11). Anyway, I want to
> > dive in head-first, and my main question is how do you guys write
> > programs with GUIs?
>
> There are lots of bindings and GUI libraries out here. Here is a list:
>
> http://www.adapower.com/index.php?Command=Class&ClassID=AdaGUI&Title=...
>
> > Do you use the gdk toolkit primarily?
>
> Yes, I am using GTK+ (through GtkAda bindings). It does not make me happy.
> GTK+ does not, I mean. IMO, GTK+'s ideology is quite alien to Ada.
>
> And Windows (did you speak about Windows?) support in GTK+ is not that
> perfect. But I am sure you will be able to get most of what you wished.
>
> > Also, the
> > application I eventually have in mind is for automated control of a
> > microscope, so I need to be able to interface with drivers/serial
> > ports/firewire/etc.
>
> That should not be a problem if you have drivers for. From Ada you can do
> whatever OS calls you wished.
>
> > Do you have any advice for me to help me along?
>
> I would say that for automation, a proper use of tasking is essential. If
> your data flow and control is fast, you might get problems with the
> event-controlled design of GUI. This is a weak point of many GUI libraries.
> You might wish to consider a time-controlled visualization architecture.
>
> Don't try to optimise your code in advance. In these times computers are
> quite fast, while sensors and actuators are comparatively slower. So you
> can sacrifice some performance for a cleaner software design. Further many
> ad-hoc assumptions about efficiency of this or that language construct
> often turn wrong. 5-10 ms soft real-time is no more a problem.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Dmitry A. Kazakovhttp://www.dmitry-kazakov.de