linking Ada and Visual C++

linking Ada and Visual C++

[haughton1228]

Any insight that anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

First some background.  We currently have an application implemented on
a DEC Alpha Unix platform, developed utilizing Rational Apex as our Ada
IDE and UIMX as our C-based X-Windows GUI generator.  We currently have
thin bindings between the Ada main programs and the C GUIs. We rename
the C main to c_main and call it at instantiation of the Ada executable
to bring up the initial display. Logic to support the displays is
written either in C or Ada, with the necessary externs and
imports/exports to make this all work.

I am trying to understand how to set up a similar environment in the NT
world.  We would like to use Microsoft Visual C++ and MFC to re-create
the GUI (~100 non-trivial displays), adapt supporting C/C++ code from
X-Windows to Windows, and port the Ada code to the NT platform with as
little change as possible. Theoretically, with the right bindings and
compiler/linker options, I should be able to compile the C++ gui and Ada
code and link the resulting objects together into a single Ada
executable. I have been prototyping using GNU Ada.  The Win32Ada
bindings there only implement the Win32 APIs, not MFC, so I'm thinking
that this would force me to use the lower level Win32 APIs to interact
with all of the MFC graphical objects created by VC++. The documentation
gives enough info to make me believe that this is possible, but I
haven't succeeded in making it work.

I've seen the updates for gnat v3.13 which implrove the C++ interface,
but I haven't found any additional info as to whether this additional
functionality or just improved documentation.

Another option would be to use AFC bindings provided as part of Aonix
ObjectAda to write an Ada MFC-based application from scratch (like the
Prosise examples), but can I use AFC to create an Ada executable with a
MFC front end created using the Visual C++ GUI builder? I have been
looking in comp.lang.ada, as well as www.gnat.com, www.aonix.com, and
www.adapower.com and microsoft sites, and haven't found this specific
question answered.  Are there any other resources (web, print, etc.)
that you could recommend? Would a 'native' Ada gui builder (such as the
one available from Aonix) be a better solution?

TIA,
Jim Haughton


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Re: linking Ada and Visual C++

[Rush Kester]

haughton1228@my-deja.com wrote:

> Any insight that anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.
>
> First some background.  We currently have an application implemented on
> a DEC Alpha Unix platform, developed utilizing Rational Apex as our Ada
> IDE and UIMX as our C-based X-Windows GUI generator.  We currently have
> thin bindings between the Ada main programs and the C GUIs. We rename
> the C main to c_main and call it at instantiation of the Ada executable
> to bring up the initial display. Logic to support the displays is
> written either in C or Ada, with the necessary externs and
> imports/exports to make this all work.

There was a vendor at the SIGAda 98 conference who had an Ada GUI product
layered on top of UIMX.  If you're interested, I'll try to locate a
name/contact for you.  You might also want to look into the GtkAda
implementation.  This is a portable and multi-language GUI.  I've used
Aonix's GUI builder on MS Windows and it easy to use and ObjectAda on Wintel
platforms is well integrated with MS Visual C/C++.

--

Rush Kester
Software Systems Engineer
AdaSoft at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
email:  rush.kester@jhuapl.edu
phone: (240) 228-3030 (live M-F 9:30am-4:30pm, voicemail anytime)
fax:      (240) 228-6779
http://hometown.aol.com/rwkester/myhomepage/index.html

Re: linking Ada and Visual C++

[Ted Dennison]

In article <38DBEEF4.2AF370E9@jhuapl.edu>,
Rush Kester <Rush.Kester@jhuapl.edu> wrote:
> There was a vendor at the SIGAda 98 conference who had an Ada GUI
> product layered on top of UIMX. If you're interested, I'll try to
> locate a name/contact for you. You might also want to look into the

It sounds like you are talking about Black & White and their UIMAda
product.

--
T.E.D.
http://www.telepath.com/~dennison/Ted/TED.html


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Before you buy.

Re: linking Ada and Visual C++

[Tom Grosman]

Aonix sells a configuration of ObjectAda for Windows with their TeleUSE
UIMS (User Interface Management System) which will allow the porting of
existing Ada/X/Motif programs directly to Windows.

www.aonix.com


-Tom

Ted Dennison wrote:

> In article <38DBEEF4.2AF370E9@jhuapl.edu>,
> Rush Kester <Rush.Kester@jhuapl.edu> wrote:
> > There was a vendor at the SIGAda 98 conference who had an Ada GUI
> > product layered on top of UIMX. If you're interested, I'll try to
> > locate a name/contact for you. You might also want to look into the
>
> It sounds like you are talking about Black & White and their UIMAda
> product.
>
> --
> T.E.D.
> http://www.telepath.com/~dennison/Ted/TED.html
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.