Re: is there a 'wait' command in Ada

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <m2hgm4vnzz.fsf@metronet.com>,
Corey Minyard  <minyard@metronet.com> wrote:

>This has bugged me since I started using GNAT.  If you use a delay,
>you get a multi-threaded application.  There is no way around it that
>I have found.  It is not a debugger issue (although a multi-threaded
>debugger would be useful).  There are other side-effects, too.  Under
>Linux, if you add a delay you will no longer be able to stop your
>application with a ^C.

The ctrl-C problem has plagued many GNAT ports; it's been fixed in
Solaris, DOS, OS/2, and Mac, and my guess is that whoever knows the
Linux runtime could fix it there too. You might want to report it to 
report@gnat.com and see what response you get.

>The delay could just call usleep or select to do its job (which should
>work under threads), but instead it uses the thread package sleep
>routines.  There is probably a reason for this, but it is rather
>inconvenient.

I'd just like to see something a bit smarter in gnatlink (I guess that's
where it would be written) that notices whether or not any other tasking 
stuff is needed, and if only simple delays are present, links a simple 
call to an ordinary sleep.

This has come up before; like so many other things, finding a solution
is just a matter of focusing on it and giving it some priority. As I
understand it, ACT has its hands full, so hasn't focused much on this. 
They've also opined, at times, that it's uncommon to use a simple delay 
to pause a program, so other things get priority on their to-do list.

Mike Feldman