to gnat make or not to gnat make (Was: ada compiler?)

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

anon schrieb:
> -- You have to learn to crawl before you can walk and learn the rules 
> -- to walk before you should run.

Indeed - only I think that using the GPS is crawling, "gnat make" is
walking, "gnat compile" / "gnat bind" / "gnat link" is hurdles and "gcc
-x ada" / "ld" steeplechase [1].

The reason you learn to craws first is because crawling is easier then
walking. And using the GPS is the easiest way to compile/bind/link an
Ada program using - well - gnat.

> First, GNAT may be the only Ada 2005 compiler at the movement but that 
> may change if other posters arecorrect. Second, GNAT is not the only 
> compiler in use today, people are still using Ada 95 from other vendors. 
> Software vedors like GHS, IBM, and Janas have Ada compilers and not one 
> of them use "gnatmake".  But all vendors including Adacore uses a version 
> of the three steps to build an Ada partition.

Well, ObjectAda has an IDE and uses some form of project manager.

> And if you check with the Ada LRM you will see that the LM promotes a 
> concept of not wasting or hogging resources.  Since "gnatmake" is a 
> resource hog the concept states that it should not be used. And as most 
> poster say the Ada LRM is the final word.

I see, you have not dug deep enough into the workings of "gnat". Have a
look at the help page:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
GNAT GPL 2007 (20070405-41)

Copyright 1996-2007, Free Software Foundation, Inc.



List of available commands



gnat bind               gnatbind

gnat chop               gnatchop

gnat clean              gnatclean

gnat compile            gnatmake -f -u -c

gnat check              gnatcheck

gnat elim               gnatelim

gnat find               gnatfind

gnat krunch             gnatkr

gnat link               gnatlink

gnat list               gnatls

gnat make               gnatmake

gnat metric             gnatmetric

gnat name               gnatname

gnat preprocess         gnatprep

gnat pretty             gnatpp

gnat stack              gnatstack

gnat stub               gnatstub

gnat xref               gnatxref



Commands find, list, metric, pretty, stack, stub and xref accept project
file switches -vPx, -Pprj an
d -Xnam=val



----------------------------------------------------------------------

"gnat compile" is an alias name for "gnatmake -f -u -c" - So the only
way to avoid "gnatmake" is using "gcc -x ada".

> Plus, if Adacore is sold and gutted, goes out of business, or falls out of 
> favor with other companies.  The newbees need to know the concept of 
> how an Ada partition is generated.  

But they don't need to use the actual commands - they are too different
between two compilers systems anyway. (I use DecAda as well).

> Now just to be funny. Adacore would love to hear this but, the boss's blood 
> pressure might hit the roof. That is, if the programmer said, "I do not know 
> how to build a Ada program without using 'gnatmake' ".  

I know in theory how to compile an Ada program using "gcc -x ada" - but
I can live without turning that theoretical knowledge into practical use.

Martin

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steeplechase_%28athletics%29
-- 
mailto://krischik@users.sourceforge.net
Ada programming at: http://ada.krischik.com