ObjectAda Libraries

ObjectAda Libraries

[Fogartys]

     I've just purchase ObjectAda Personal Edition and sent in my registration
 card, but it will probably still be a week or so before I'm eligable for the
 ObjectAda mailing list or my 30 day window of Aonix telephone support.  In the
 meantime, I'm hopefull that experienced ObjectAda users might point me in the
 right direction in taking advantage of ObjectAda's built-in libraries.

     For example, even though it's not a required element of the language, I
 would expect there to be a library package named perhaps, TRIG_FUNCTIONS, that
 I could "with" into my program and then use cosine, sine, etc.  If such
 libraries are not included it's not the end of the world; I can write my own. 
 All the same, I'd be dismayed that a $245 commercial compiler would come
 without such basic functions.

     Also, although I didn't get the more expensive professional edition that
 includes the GUI (Graphic User Interface) Builder, my understanding was that I
 could still build GUI's in the personal edition by typing in all the code by
 hand.  Yet in the help features and courseware I have not found any hint of
 packages that I could "with" into my program to create even simple buttons or
 do basic pixel manipulation within a window.  

     Perhaps I am missing something obvious.  After all, all my previous Ada
 programming experience (which includes built-from-scratch GUI programming) has
 been in DOS.  For that reason, if anyone can recommend a textbook that has
 been particularly helpful in making the transition between DOS and Windows
 programming, that also would be appreciated.


Sincerely,

John Fogarty

Aionx Survey (was ObjectAda Libraries)

[Robert B. Love]

Did anybody else get the customer survey from Aionx?  It says
if you return it by Oct 31 1997 you get a reward package and
are eligible for a bigger prize.  I got mine on Oct 31, the
deadline to return it.  What day did the rest of you receive the
survey?

----------------------------------------------------------------
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 rlove@neosoft.com                            PGP key available
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Re: ObjectAda Libraries

[Jerry van Dijk]

In article <19971031212700.QAA03641@ladder02.news.aol.com> fogartys@aol.com writes:

>     For example, even though it's not a required element of the language, I
> would expect there to be a library package named perhaps, TRIG_FUNCTIONS,

Actually, this is required by the language, to find the proper package,
look it up in the on-line Reference Manual that comes with OA.

>     Also, although I didn't get the more expensive professional edition that
> includes the GUI (Graphic User Interface) Builder, my understanding was that I
> could still build GUI's in the personal edition by typing in all the code by
> hand.  Yet in the help features and courseware I have not found any hint of
> packages that I could "with" into my program to create even simple buttons or
> do basic pixel manipulation within a window.

This has nothing to do with Ada but with Windows programming.

The Windows API (Win32) itself is documented in the online documentation
(Help, Win32). To learn how to program Windows application you need to
learn this from some Windows programming book, e.g. Petzold.

--

-- Jerry van Dijk | Leiden, Holland
-- Consultant     | Team Ada
-- Ordina Finance | jdijk@acm.org

Re: ObjectAda Libraries

[Fogartys]

Dave,

     Thanks for your posting in response to my questions.  Among other things,
 you wrote:

>As currently implemented, any ObjectAda user can join the
>mailing list simply sending an email to majordomo@aonix.com,
>with the following text in the body of the message: 
>
>  subscribe Intel-ObjectAda <your-email-address> 
>
>As far as the 30 day support period goes, if you just sent
>in the card and can't wait for it to show up at Aonix, just
>explain that to the humans answering the customer support
>lines.  You'll find them quite reasonable about this.

     Something to the effect of the above included with the ObjectAda CD would
 be useful.  Perhaps you can talk to whomever does the packing and see if they
 could include an extra  "Message from Dave Wood, the Product Manager."


     As far as the generic_elementary_functions package included in Annex A - 
 many Ada users have kindly pointed out my oversight there.  I should have
 included in my post that in addition to being new to windows programming I'm
 also new to Ada95 and wasn't aware of that feature being added to the new
 version of the language.   Thanks to all who provided guidance here.

     Concerning textbooks, I've order Naiditch's "Rendezvous With Ada95" since
 I liked his original Ada83 textbook so much, but if that doesn't do the job
 then I'll get some of the other textbooks recommended as well.   Certainly
 I'll follow your advice (and the advice of others) and get a Win32 programming
 text.  I went into this with the naive assumption that there would just be a
 few packages I could "with" and then go about programming as always but in a
 windows environment instead of DOS.  Oh well, I suppose I'm still not too old
 to learn a few new tricks.  Thanks again for the advice.

Sincerely,

John H. Fogarty

Re: ObjectAda Libraries

[Steve Doiel]

In article <19971031212700.QAA03641@ladder02.news.aol.com>, fogartys@aol.com 
says...
>
>
>     I've just purchase ObjectAda Personal Edition and sent in my 
registration
> card, but it will probably still be a week or so before I'm eligable for the
> ObjectAda mailing list or my 30 day window of Aonix telephone support.  In 
the
> meantime, I'm hopefull that experienced ObjectAda users might point me in 
the
> right direction in taking advantage of ObjectAda's built-in libraries.
>
>     For example, even though it's not a required element of the language, I
> would expect there to be a library package named perhaps, TRIG_FUNCTIONS, 
that
> I could "with" into my program and then use cosine, sine, etc.  If such
> libraries are not included it's not the end of the world; I can write my 
own. 
> All the same, I'd be dismayed that a $245 commercial compiler would come
> without such basic functions.
>

Of course ObjectAda personal supports these functions.  they are included in 
Annex A of Ada 95.  Check out Ada.Numerics.Generic_Elementary_Functions.

>     Also, although I didn't get the more expensive professional edition that
> includes the GUI (Graphic User Interface) Builder, my understanding was that 
I
> could still build GUI's in the personal edition by typing in all the code by
> hand.  Yet in the help features and courseware I have not found any hint of
> packages that I could "with" into my program to create even simple buttons 
or
> do basic pixel manipulation within a window.  
>
Look in the ObjectAda subdirectories under examples.  You will find some 
reference to Petzold.  These are Ada implementations of the examples from 
Charles Petzold's book Programming Windows.

Best of luck,
SteveD

Re: ObjectAda Libraries

[Dave Wood]

You're laboring under a few misperceptions about
ObjectAda.  Allow me to clarify...

Fogartys wrote:
> 
>      I've just purchase ObjectAda Personal Edition and sent in my registration
>  card, but it will probably still be a week or so before I'm eligable for the
>  ObjectAda mailing list or my 30 day window of Aonix telephone support.  

As currently implemented, any ObjectAda user can join the
mailing list simply sending an email to majordomo@aonix.com,
with the following text in the body of the message: 

  subscribe Intel-ObjectAda <your-email-address> 

As far as the 30 day support period goes, if you just sent
in the card and can't wait for it to show up at Aonix, just
explain that to the humans answering the customer support
lines.  You'll find them quite reasonable about this.

>In the
>  meantime, I'm hopefull that experienced ObjectAda users might point me in the
>  right direction in taking advantage of ObjectAda's built-in libraries.
> 
>      For example, even though it's not a required element of the language, I
>  would expect there to be a library package named perhaps, TRIG_FUNCTIONS, that
>  I could "with" into my program and then use cosine, sine, etc.  If such
>  libraries are not included it's not the end of the world; I can write my own.
>  All the same, I'd be dismayed that a $245 commercial compiler would come
>  without such basic functions.

This is part of the language standard (Generic_Elementary_Functions
in the Numerics package).  Given that ObjectAda is a validated 
Ada 95 compiler, you'll find this package is supported.

>      Also, although I didn't get the more expensive professional edition that
>  includes the GUI (Graphic User Interface) Builder, my understanding was that I
>  could still build GUI's in the personal edition by typing in all the code by
>  hand.  Yet in the help features and courseware I have not found any hint of
>  packages that I could "with" into my program to create even simple buttons or
>  do basic pixel manipulation within a window.
> 
>      Perhaps I am missing something obvious.  

Yep.  You need to learn about Win32.

There is nothing that you can do with the GUI Builder
that you can't do without it - it's just harder.  Although
the GUI Builder allows you to graphically depict your GUI,
once you press the Save button it generates Ada code with
Win32 calls.  Therefore, you could certainly write the 
same code yourself.

In the base products, a publicly available Win23 binding,
win32ada, is supplied on the CD along with a number of
substantial GUI examples.  You'll find them in the 
samples folder.

The win32ada binding set covers the full Win32 up 
to NT 3.5.

In addition, an enhanced binding which provides coverage
to NT 4.x is available with the OpenPack, as are a set
of graphics libraries, and a binding to a substantial
subset of MFC.

(Beyond all this, you could use other C/ C++ APIs as 
well, so long as you're willing to make bindings for
whichever calls you want to make.  In general, anything
that you can program in MSVC, you can also program with 
ObjectAda.)

>After all, all my previous Ada
>  programming experience (which includes built-from-scratch GUI programming) has
>  been in DOS.  For that reason, if anyone can recommend a textbook that has
>  been particularly helpful in making the transition between DOS and Windows
>  programming, that also would be appreciated.

I highly recommend that you stop by your local bookstore
and pick up one of the many books on Win32.  You'd be
surprised at the breadth of stuff covered by that API.

For a quick search, the Microsoft Win32 help file is 
supplied with ObjectAda.  To search it or index on it,
launch it directly from the Microsoft Explorer rather
than from the ObjectAda help system.  This is an
extremely valuable tool, however I recommend it only
as a quick reference.  To get a better grasp of context,
you should pick out a good Win32 book.

I hope this helps.

-- Dave Wood
-- Product Manager, ObjectAda for Windows
-- Aonix - "We don' need no steenking mandate..."
-- http://www.aonix.com

Re: Aionx Survey (was ObjectAda Libraries)

[Dave Wood]

Robert B. Love wrote:
> 
> Did anybody else get the customer survey from Aionx?  It says
> if you return it by Oct 31 1997 you get a reward package and
> are eligible for a bigger prize.  I got mine on Oct 31, the
> deadline to return it.  What day did the rest of you receive the
> survey?

Alas, you might not believe it, but we wrote up that
survey and cover letter six months ago!  For various
reasons not of general interest, they didn't get
mailed until a week or two ago.  As such, the 
deadline was supposed to have been extended to 
November 15, but evidently they shipped without
the change.

Not to worry, if you send in the survey we'll take
care of you.  :-)

We really are very interested in your feedback,
and now is the perfect time as we are still laying
out the final plans for v7.2 functionality.  Your
response certainly will be appreciated.

-- Dave Wood
-- Product Manager, ObjectAda for Windows
-- Aonix - "We don' need no steenking mandate!"
-- http://www.aonix.com
-- Free ObjectAda:  ftp://ftp.aonix.com/pub/ada/public/pal