Ada and WIMPs

Ada and WIMPs

[Ade Vickers]

Hi,

I'm a bit new to Ada here, having not used it at all for the last 8
years; and then only as part of an undergraduate course, so I've still
got a lot of learning to do...

However, I'd like to take the plunge and write apps for a variety of
windowing systems - particularly WinNT and KDE (under Linux).

However....

Whilst I have found the Win32Ada bindings, these seem to require an
in-depth knowledge of Windows which I just don't have. I can't find
anything suitable for KDE.

I suppose, being a VB programmer, what I'm really looking for is a
screen painter for Ada, which will generate the low-level code, which
will compile to the specified target (e.g. Win32, KDE, X, etc.). One
question, therefore, is does - could - anything exist that meets that
requirement?

Also, as a side issue, do standardised librarys exist to allow me to
access database servers such as Sybase or Oracle?


Thanks for any info, it is much appreciated!
-- 
Cheers,
Ade.

If at first you fail, cheat. Repeat until caught, then lie.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[tmoran]

>However, I'd like to take the plunge and write apps for a variety of
>windowing systems - particularly WinNT and KDE (under Linux).

  There are several Ada-Windows bindings, ranging from the very
thin like Win32Ada to the very thick like Claw, with differing
amounts of coverage of the Windows API, and of course with
differing prices, documentation, rates of enhancement, and support.
Take a look at www.adapower.com for a list.  BTW, the full Claw is
listed there under "commercial", implying, correctly, that it costs
money.  But there's an "introductory" or "student" version free for
the downloading at www.rrsoftware.com   Also at that web site, see
the paper "CLAW, a High Level, Portable, Ada 95 Binding for
Microsoft Windows" (yours truly as co-author) for a discussion on
approaches to using Ada with Windows.  Also at adapower, there's my
simple Windows graphical version of Mike Feldman's Dining
Philosophers, with images of several well known Ada gurus as the
philosophers.

>screen painter for Ada, which will generate the low-level code,
  There are also several GUI builders around which do just that.
Various compiler vendors offer them, and there's one that
generates Claw calls and thus works with any compiler.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Preben Randhol]

On Mon, 06 Mar 2000 16:29:24 +0000, Ade Vickers <nospam@ttoolsbase.com> wrote:
>However....
>
>Whilst I have found the Win32Ada bindings, these seem to require an
>in-depth knowledge of Windows which I just don't have. I can't find
>anything suitable for KDE.

Look at GtkAda instead at http://gtkada.eu.org/

-- 
Preben Randhol -- [randhol@pvv.org] -- [http://www.pvv.org/~randhol/]
         "Det eneste trygge stedet i verden er inne i en fortelling."
                                                      -- Athol Fugard

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Jeff Creem]

Preben Randhol <randhol@pvv.org> wrote in message
news:slrn8c9ck0.1nt.randhol@kiuk0156.chembio.ntnu.no...
> On Mon, 06 Mar 2000 16:29:24 +0000, Ade Vickers <nospam@ttoolsbase.com>
wrote:
> >However....
> >
> >Whilst I have found the Win32Ada bindings, these seem to require an
> >in-depth knowledge of Windows which I just don't have. I can't find
> >anything suitable for KDE.
>
> Look at GtkAda instead at http://gtkada.eu.org/


Yes.. And get the glade GUI builder (http://glade.pn.org)

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Gary Scott]

There is an excellent cross-platform graphics package for Win32, OpenVMS,
and UNIX/Linux from Bradly Associates that comes with Fortran 77, Fortran
95, and C bindings (none Ada specific).  The Fortran 77 bindings are
extremely easy to use and interfaces could be easily translated to Ada
(only trouble would be "hidden" arguments for strings).  The Fortran 95
and C bindings are simpler than Win32 (and obviously a subset), but do not
gain you much in functionality for the added interface complexity.  If
your compiler can use/specify CDECL or STDCALL, they probably have
something of interest.  It is somewhat costly, but probably is the best
such package that exists.

http://www.bradassoc.co.uk

Ade Vickers wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm a bit new to Ada here, having not used it at all for the last 8
> years; and then only as part of an undergraduate course, so I've still
> got a lot of learning to do...
>
> However, I'd like to take the plunge and write apps for a variety of
> windowing systems - particularly WinNT and KDE (under Linux).
>
> However....
>
> Whilst I have found the Win32Ada bindings, these seem to require an
> in-depth knowledge of Windows which I just don't have. I can't find
> anything suitable for KDE.
>
> I suppose, being a VB programmer, what I'm really looking for is a
> screen painter for Ada, which will generate the low-level code, which
> will compile to the specified target (e.g. Win32, KDE, X, etc.). One
> question, therefore, is does - could - anything exist that meets that
> requirement?
>
> Also, as a side issue, do standardised librarys exist to allow me to
> access database servers such as Sybase or Oracle?
>
> Thanks for any info, it is much appreciated!
> --
> Cheers,
> Ade.
>
> If at first you fail, cheat. Repeat until caught, then lie.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Jerry van Dijk]

Since everyone mentioned the GUI builders...

> Also, as a side issue, do standardised librarys exist to allow me to
> access database servers such as Sybase or Oracle?

Well, that depends on what you call 'standardized'. One obvious route,
at least under Win32, is to use ODBC. Otherwise there are some
bindings (= Ada interface to external libraries) for databases like
MySql.

Jerry.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[David Botton]

On Win32, you would be better off using ADO as you would then have access to
not just ODBC, but any other OLE Provider (MAPI, LDAP, etc).

There is an example of using ADO at http://www.adapower.com/com

David Botton

Jerry van Dijk wrote in message <38c558c5_4@news2.prserv.net>...
>Well, that depends on what you call 'standardized'. One obvious route,
>at least under Win32, is to use ODBC. Otherwise there are some
>bindings (= Ada interface to external libraries) for databases like
>MySql.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Pascal Obry]

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David Botton a �crit dans le message
<3shx4.2147$Z_4.199778@news4.usenetserver.com>...
>On Win32, you would be better off using ADO as you would then have access
to
>not just ODBC, but any other OLE Provider (MAPI, LDAP, etc).
>


The question here is do you want to be Win32 only or cross-platforms ?

For Win32 only it seems fine to use ADO, but otherwise I'll stay with plain
ODBC
which should be easily portable to others platforms, right ?

Pascal.

PS: I've never used ODBC in something else than Win32...

--|------------------------------------------------------
--| Pascal Obry                           Team-Ada Member
--| 45, rue Gabriel Peri - 78114 Magny Les Hameaux FRANCE
--|------------------------------------------------------
--|         http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pascal.obry
--|
--| "The best way to travel is by means of imagination"

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Jerry van Dijk]

> PS: I've never used ODBC in something else than Win32...

Used it on Linux as well.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Adrian Vickers]

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Pascal Obry of p.obry@wanadoo.fr wrote on Wed, 8 Mar 2000 10:37:36 +0100 
in comp.lang.ada:
> 
> David Botton a �crit dans le message
> <3shx4.2147$Z_4.199778@news4.usenetserver.com>...
> >On Win32, you would be better off using ADO as you would then have access
> to
> >not just ODBC, but any other OLE Provider (MAPI, LDAP, etc).
> 
> The question here is do you want to be Win32 only or cross-platforms ?
> 
> For Win32 only it seems fine to use ADO, but otherwise I'll stay with plain
> ODBC which should be easily portable to others platforms, right ?
> 

Agreed - ODBC, whilst not the most friendly DB access system, is 
nonetheless relatively portable, and so long as the driver exists is 
capable of accessing a wide variety of DB engines.

-- 
Cheers,
Ade.

If at first you fail, cheat. Repeat until caught, then lie.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Ade Vickers]

Thanks to all for the info here; it certainly gives me something to look
at. Unfortunately, I don't have HTTP access during the day (no web :-(
), but I will definitely take a look at CLAW.

Thanks again,
-- 
Cheers,
Ade.

If at first you fail, cheat. Repeat until caught, then lie.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Stefan Skoglund]

Ade Vickers wrote:
> 
> Whilst I have found the Win32Ada bindings, these seem to require an
> in-depth knowledge of Windows which I just don't have. I can't find
> anything suitable for KDE.

Considering that KDE is pretty much C++-specific i don't think
it is possible to write KDE compliant programs in Ada.

GNOME is very much different in that area, look for gtkada.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[Jeff Susanj]

Stefan Skoglund wrote in message <38D293BB.FD427EE9@ebox.tninet.se>...
>Ade Vickers wrote:
>>
>> Whilst I have found the Win32Ada bindings, these seem to require an
>> in-depth knowledge of Windows which I just don't have. I can't find
>> anything suitable for KDE.
>
>Considering that KDE is pretty much C++-specific i don't think
>it is possible to write KDE compliant programs in Ada.
>
>GNOME is very much different in that area, look for gtkada.

An option is to write Ada wrappers for the C++ calls or look for some that
someone else has already done.  That is the nice thing about open source
code, people are generally willing to share what they have done.


Jeff S.

Re: Ada and WIMPs

[David Starner]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 21:21:15 +0100, Stefan Skoglund <stetson@ebox.tninet.se> wrote:
>Ade Vickers wrote:
>> 
>> Whilst I have found the Win32Ada bindings, these seem to require an
>> in-depth knowledge of Windows which I just don't have. I can't find
>> anything suitable for KDE.
>
>Considering that KDE is pretty much C++-specific i don't think
>it is possible to write KDE compliant programs in Ada.

Sure you can. Someone just needs to wrap the KDE libraries for Ada,
probably using GNAT's C++ interface, just like had to be done for
GNOME (except in C++ instead of C.) 

-- 
David Starner - dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org
Only a nerd would worry about wrong parentheses with
square brackets. But that's what mathematicians are.
   -- Dr. Burchard, math professor at OSU