Re: GNAT Programming System Problems

[Martin Krischik <krischik@users.sourceforge.net>]

C. Leif wrote:

> After much time and effort, I have been able to compile a program with the
> GNAT Programming System.  Initially, when I created a project, the files
> would neither compile nor even check syntax.  I received a message,
> 
> "pretty_printer" is not an allowed package name
> warning: undefined attribute "default_switches"
> 
> This problem was eliminated by commenting out information on the pretty
> printer in the .gpr file.

The pretty printer is only available to newer GNATs. Personally I think this
is a design mistake. Unknown packages should have been a warning not an
error.

> For each of my Ada Utilities, I created its own project.  Since in each
> utility there are packages (mostly bodies) that depend on packages in
> another utility, there are circular dependencies amongst the .gpr files.
> Fortunately, these do not exist in the specifications.  After extensive
> searching, I found mention of a "limited with construct".  The addition of
> limited before with in the project file did not work.

In which case you might consider a library package. Just create a package
with the shared packages and add:

    Version := "1.0.0";
    for Library_Name        use "adacl";

   case Style is
      when "Release" =>
         for Library_Kind        use "dynamic";
         for Library_Version     use "libmylib.so." & Version;
      when "Debug" =>
         for Library_Kind        use "static";
         for Library_Version     use "libmylib.a." & Version;
   end case;

and remove the 

    for Main ...
    for Executable ...

statements.

> Obviously, I would greatly appreciate help.  I also should state that I
> have
> described one of the reasons for the Ada's lack of popularity.  Microsoft
> and other software manufacturers have demonstrated that for the customer
> the ease of use of the environment can outweigh the comparative lack of
> quality
> of the compiler.  I was hopping that the development of A# would result in
> a commercial quality compiler that could be hosted, as many other
> languages
> have been, under Microsoft Visual Studio.  The traditional Ada compiler
> vendors might extend their J code generators to produce the ECMA
> intermediate language employed by Microsoft.

Remember: you are using the free academic version! GNAT Pro comes with
pretty printer, the newest GPS, and support.

With Regards

Martin

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