Re: Newbie Needs Ada Advice

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

ezkcdude wrote:

> I have a couple more questions. I was reading about Tk as a cross-
> platform GUI toolkit, and there is an Ada binding called TASH. This
> seems like an interesting way to go. Have any of you guys used TASH or
> Tk from Ada? Also, would GtkAda/GLADE be cross-platform? Ideally, I'd
> like to write code that could be ported to Linux/OS X (and Windows
> obviously). Thanks.

No experience with TASH here.

GtkAda works in Linux and Windows at least; no idea about OSX. However, it
is too bulky for my tastes, in the sense that you need lots of glue code
for the simplest callback. Then, I don't like either the look of GTK+
(there are L'n'Feels I guess) and working with TreeViews is another tiring
process (but the C++ examples show that this is not the fault of GtkAda).
That said, I've seen great looking apps written with GtkAda (one for xfig
figures and another one for musical scales, whose names I don't remember
right now, are the first ones that come to my mind).

Recently was an announcemente of a Qt binding, so there are two different
ones out right now I think, but can't say about its maturity. I remember
from my C++ days that Qt was easy to use... but how well this traslates to
the Ada side I don't know.

The approach I've used for my last projects that required a GUI were either
very simple (and ugly) ones with GtkAda or a web interface using AWS. If
you don't need quick refresh, this last approach is completely
cross-platform, easy to learn and program and you can use any HTML editor
for the static parts. The template engine is easy to use and has been
powerful enough for everything I've needed. Also you can embed in the
executable all needed files.