Re: Anyone use Rational Apex on a WinNT platform?

["John *NOSPAM* Bunk" <jk_nospam_@vc_nospam_net.com>]

Well, I can tell you from personal experience when I had to do this for
Turbo Pascal for Windows that this was a pain in the ___.  Because the
binding wasn't C and wasn't written by the same people who developed the MS
Win32 SDK, there were some subtle differences between the SDK interface and
thin bindings (callbacks and data types anyone?).  The SDK will only
describe the operation of the function and what you pass into it, but it
doesn't describe the specifics of the native code interface (what data
types, enumerations, blah blah blah).

By the way, last time I went to Opamp technical bookstore, I had to wade
through tons of MFC, Java, and Delphi books to find one or two pure Win32
SDK books (which basically was just a copy of the MS SDK).  The best
solution, obviously, is to get MSDN CDs, but now I have to pay even more to
get the same thing I get for free when I buy Visual C++, Delphi, C++
Builder, etc...  At least the compiler SHOULD bundle the SDK with the
compiler if it's going to advertise itself as a Win32 compiler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John

Dave Wood wrote in message <364BDD4D.BF17B5BE@cts.com>...
>I certainly can't speak for Rational, but regarding
>the documentation issue, wouldn't any Win32 book
>suffice?  Presuming the binding is thin, any of
>the dozens of books at your local Barnes&Noble
>ought to be usable for Win32 programming even if
>Apex itself doesn't include Win32 API docs.
>
>-- Dave Wood, Aonix
>-- Product Manager, ObjectAda for Windows
>-- http://www.aonix.com
>
>
>Roga Danar wrote:
>>
>> Hi John,
>>
>>   I am amoung the unfortunate that use Rational Apex Ada.
>>
>> John *NOSPAM* Bunk wrote:
>>
>> > Hello,
>> > Has anyone used the Rational Apex Ada compiler on a NT host platform
for a
>> > Win32 target?
>>
>
>[snip]
>
>>
>> > Documentation?
>>
>>     NONE!! This is my biggest complaint.  If the WIN API were documented
I
>> would have little problem w/ it.  But there is little to none in any of
the
>> sub-systems that came with the version I am using.
>>
>> > Performance?
>>
>>     Well, the Apex environment for NT is an entirely different animal
than the
>> one they have for Unix.  They make like it isn't but believe me it is.
>>
>>     My experience w/ it includes:
>>
>> Crashes.  Once in a while it fails to get permissions to write one file
or
>> another and just crashes. BANG, you have to it up again.
>>
>> Terrible GUI.  It take getting use to but even then it really
uncomfortable to
>> work with.  if one is use to the Unix version be prepared to be
disappointed in
>> the funcationality that you are losing.
>>
>> Cannot write to PRN or LPT1:  I have yet to find a way to write to a port
with
>> this version of Apex Ada.  There is code in the predefined.ss that look
like it
>> could help but only crashes on elaboration.  I have written for help on
this
>> very ng but to no avail.  I as well as others have been able to do this
simple
>> task on other compilers (GNAT, Alsys) for NT.
>>
>> >
>>
>>     Hope this helps.
>>
>>     Michael
>>
>> >
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance,
>> > John
>>
>>   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>>
>>   Roga Danar <nospam_smithm@nospam_stelnj.com>
>>   Senior Software Eng. Consultant
>>   AlphaSoft, Inc.
>>
>>   Roga Danar
>>   Senior Software Eng. Consultant  <nospam_smithm@nospam_stelnj.com>
>>   AlphaSoft, Inc.
>>                                    Netscape Conference Address
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>>   Remove the "_nospam" in the email address to reply
>>   Additional Information:
>>   Last Name      Danar
>>   First Name     Roga
>>   Version        2.1