Re: GNAT GPL Edition - on the plus side

["Alex R. Mosteo" <devnull@mailinator.com>]

randomm@mindless.com wrote:
> Steve wrote:
> 
>>My experience:
>>
>>GNAT GPL Edition includes the first version of GPS I have run on Windows
>>that I haven't removed after a few days of frustration.
> 
> 
> I think GPS is dreadful; it has an outmoded look and feel and I am
> probably missing something, but it never seems to remember the most
> recent project, instead defaulting to the BIN installation directory
> which is very frustrating.   When it comes time to buy a compiler and
> IDE, I'll be looking for a toolset which is a little friendlier and
> more modern-looking.

I'm over the fence on GPS. In one hand, it gets better and better with 
each release, but is kind of an "Ada beast", you feel quite alone using 
it. On the other hand, I recently tried Eclipse and was stunned; it's 
amazing. Sometimes I fantasize over the idea that Adacore invested 
effort in a full featured Eclipse plugin*. The idea that you're in the 
same boat with a lot of other developers outside of the Ada world is 
attractive for me.

[*] I know that there's one for sale by <argh, memory fails>, and at 
least two voluntary efforts going on.

> Even though it's not fancy, John English's GnatIDE 1.4 is a lot easier
> to use, at least with small projects.  (Thanks, Doc!)  It seems to be
> smarter about things like naming Ada body files, etc.
> 
> 
>>The compiler seems to just plain work (as usual).
> 
> 
> True enough...
> 
> I'm new to Ada, but I've been writing code for a long time.  This may
> be a testament to Ada standards as much as to GNAT, but I haven't seen
> any compiler (aside from GNAT 3.15p) which ate up everything in any
> example I cut-and-pasted from any source (online tutorial, text book,
> etc.)  That is certainly an extremely valuable aspect of Ada and GNAT-
> uniformity is good for beginners and pros alike.
> 
> snip
> 
> 
>>IMHO the folks at AdaCore have done a great job.
> 
> 
> Ditto!  And you can't beat the price.
> 
> Rand
>