Re: Decent ADA compiler on a Mac

[collins@cs.wm.edu (Bob Collins)]

In article <3khii0$cgi@gnat.cs.nyu.edu> dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
>The drag-and-drop paradigm for a compiler sounds nice (to compile just
>drop the source on the compiler), but in practice I think it would be
>a mmajor pain in the neck. This kind of mousing is nice for lots of things,
>but command line interfaces are ultimately much more appropriate for
>software development involving compilation and linking. That's why a decent
>compiler on the Mac is more work than it might be, you have to create your
>own command line interface of some kind. Yes, you could use MPW, but this
>is not available to most MAC users.

MPW is being phased out by Apple. The best compilers in the Mac market
(IMO), produced by MetroWerks, allow one to drag and drop text files
onto the project window to add files to a project. Dragging and
dropping individual files onto a compiler is a convenient way to open
the compiler for a file the compiler does not own, but is not used
to actually compile a file. For that, one usually needs a project file
(with its associated window) first. One can functionally do as much
with a non-CLI compiler/editor/linker/debugger on a Mac as with MPW
(at least for projects smaller than 1000 or so files). I guess, to
use one of RD's favorite terms correctly, the CLI vs non-CLI issue
remains moot.

(BTW, MetroWerks sells a CD with integrated development environment
compilers for Pascal, C, and C++; with code generators for
Mac Motorola 680x0, Mac Power PC, and Windows Intel 80x86/Pentium;
running fat on both 680x0 and Power PC for an academic price of $99.
This entitles one to three CDs in one year. This is the kind of
competition Ada faces in the real world, if one can label the
academic world real. I don't work for them, so no email addresses
or phone numbers.)

Bob Collins, collins@cs.wm.edu