Re: Using GNU make with ObjectAda

[Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com>]

Actually, with Ada, it *does* know. You could try it by experimentation 
- build some relatively small chain of dependencies starting with some 
main program, then compile it. From there, edit one specification 
somewhere down the food chain. Then tell the system to rebuild. Dollars 
to doughnuts, the Ada compiler should discover that the spec you edited 
is out of date and recompile just the stuff that depends on it.

I'm not that familiar with ObjectAda (although I am going down that 
direction for a project at work) so I can't tell you for sure how that 
is accomplished with that compiler. Its just that the standard says it 
should have some means of doing so. With GNAT Ada, I *know* this works - 
even across directories (provided they are in the search path.) An 
edited spec will cause the gnatmake tool to figure out exactly what 
needs to be compiled and it will do so.

In C++ and other languages, make files may be more of a necessity. With 
Ada, I've never had to do that. I've just had to learn how to get the 
particular compiler I was working with to do it for me.

MDC


Tim Spargo wrote:
> file. But normally it is up to the make file to rebuild an entire project.
> For example if a single header/spec file has changed, which files in the
> project need to be rebuilt? The compiler doesn't know this. Of course these
> files may be in different directories etc. So the makefile is needed to
> capture the dependency relationships between the project files.

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Marin David Condic
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