Re: timeouts

[Jano <notelacreas@porfavor.no>]

Brian May wrote:
>>>>>>"Jano" == Jano  <notelacreas@porfavor.no> writes:
> 
> 
>     Jano> And I concur with some other poster: is too bad that the
>     Jano> latest public release of gnat for windows carries two or
>     Jano> three traps like this not mentioned in the users guide for
>     Jano> NT. These are long-time known and fixed bugs, at least a
>     Jano> link in the download page to some bugs page would be of
>     Jano> interest (that's to say, if nobody at ACT is interested in
>     Jano> or have the time to re-package 3.15p or make a new public
>     Jano> release).

> What other known traps exist?

Not as bad as this one, but:

* The select call in the Gnat.Sockets package has a bug and isn't 
reliable. Each call to Gnat.Sockets.Stream allocates memory that you 
should free (Undocumented).

* Not exactly a bug, but the priorities in System.Priority are more than 
the ones that windows offers. They're transparently mapped and *merged* 
which can give unexpected results. This is explained in the system.ads 
file but not in the users guide. This one is specially frustrating when 
you're taught the amazing Ada tasking capabilities, try to experiment in 
the free Gnat compiler, read in the users guide that it has strict Annex 
D compliance and then you start to get funny results.

BTW I have ready the patch (I use it rutinely in my windows programs) 
you need for the delay matter. Mail me to public .at. mosteo dot com if 
you're interested in it. I prefer to include it in my sources that 
recompile the Gnat runtime, so any person compiling them doesn't need to 
worry about patching his Gnat.

I want to clarify that I have not any grudge against ACT. I simply find 
disturbing that a pointer to these known issues isn't present in the 
users guide (which is what you're repeatedly told to read when you are a 
novice asking novice questions). I've lost some time over these issues 
and that's the reason that when someone faces them I quickly respond. 
Not resentment or something like that. I really love to have Gnat 
available for free.

Kind regards,

A. Mosteo.