Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Tim Rowe]

I'm trying to set up Ada on my Windows XP Pro system so I can learn Ada. 
  I've got the free version of GNAT, and would now like a development 
environment.

I've tried AdaGIDE, but when I run it all that happens is a shell 
console appears and disappears too fast for me to read what's in it. 
Running from a shell just gives the same result.

Ok, can't get AdaGIDE to work, so I try the AonixADT addon for Eclipse. 
To get that working I need to set up the "toolchain", but I can't find 
any explanation of what a "toolchain" is. The ADT tutorial says that 
"The Ada toolchain (ObjectAda, GNAT, etc.)  is located at the top level 
of the Ada installation - for example, C:/Program 
Files/Aonix/ObjectAda." So for GNAT, maybe it's at "C:\Program 
Files\gnat", which is where I've installed GNAT. Nope: "The specified 
location does not contain a valid GNAT installation". Maybe "C:\Program 
Files\gnat\2008"? Nope. "C:\Program Files\gnat\2008\bin"? Nope.

Could anybody help me to get either of those environments working, or 
point me to one that's easier to set up and use?

Thanks.

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Pascal Obry]

Tim Rowe a �crit :
> Could anybody help me to get either of those environments working, or
> point me to one that's easier to set up and use?

What about GPS which comes with GNAT GPL versions?

Pascal.

-- 

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Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Georg Bauhaus]

Tim Rowe schrieb:
> So for GNAT, maybe it's at "C:\Program
> Files\gnat", which is where I've installed GNAT. Nope: "The specified
> location does not contain a valid GNAT installation". Maybe "C:\Program
> Files\gnat\2008"? Nope. "C:\Program Files\gnat\2008\bin"? Nope.

Just a guess: try replacing "Program Files" with the 8.3 name
of that directory.

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Tero Koskinen]

On Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:42:52 +0000 Tim Rowe wrote:
> I'm trying to set up Ada on my Windows XP Pro system so I can learn Ada. 
>   I've got the free version of GNAT, and would now like a development 
> environment.
...
> Could anybody help me to get either of those environments working, or 
> point me to one that's easier to set up and use?

Notepad++ is pretty decent editor with Ada syntax highlighting:
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Alternatively, you could try
   GNATbench - https://libre.adacore.com/GNATbench/
   GPS - https://libre.adacore.com/gps/
or Hibachi - http://www.eclipse.org/hibachi/
   (which is open sourced AonixADT)

-- 
Tero Koskinen - http://iki.fi/tero.koskinen/

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Ivan Levashew]

Tim Rowe wrote:
> 
> I've tried AdaGIDE, but when I run it all that happens is a shell 
> console appears and disappears too fast for me to read what's in it. 
> Running from a shell just gives the same result.
> 
There are several plugins for FAR Manager.

-- 
If you want to get to the top, you have to start at the bottom

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Tim Rowe]

Pascal Obry wrote:
> Tim Rowe a �crit :
>> Could anybody help me to get either of those environments working, or
>> point me to one that's easier to set up and use?
> 
> What about GPS which comes with GNAT GPL versions?

I didn't know that was there! ;-)

It gives much more intelligible error messages, which helped me diagnose 
the problems, thanks. (The path wasn't set up correctly, and I'd got the 
dotnet version of GNAT, which includes GPS but doesn't work with GPS (or 
much else, as far as I can see!)

So I've gone from having no working environment to being spoiled for 
choice with three. Thanks!

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[britt.snodgrass]

On Mar 2, 11:50 am, Tero Koskinen <tero.koski...@iki.fi> wrote:

>
> Alternatively, you could try
>    GNATbench -https://libre.adacore.com/GNATbench/
>    GPS -https://libre.adacore.com/gps/
> or Hibachi -http://www.eclipse.org/hibachi/
>    (which is open sourced AonixADT)
>

At work I use the GNAT Pro releases of both GPS and GNATbench. I
recommend GPS for its relative simplicity (simple to install/
configure) and excellent support for Ada coding assistance and
integration with the GNAT toolset.  GNATbench is very good if you like
working with Eclipse.  I have also used the AonixADT plug-in the past,
but I can't recommend it.

jGRASP (http://www.jgrasp.org) is another option that works well with
GNAT.

- Britt

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Peter Hermann]

Tim Rowe <spamtrap@tgrowe.plus.net> wrote:
> I'm trying to set up Ada on my Windows XP Pro system so I can learn Ada. 

should be perfect under WinXP :

first install an up-to-date gnat compiler
(by means of executing e.g. 
gnat-gpl-2008-pentium-mingw32msv-bin.exe
or similar )

>   I've got the free version of GNAT, and would now like a development 
> environment.

this should run, too.

 
> I've tried AdaGIDE, but when I run it all that happens is a shell 
> console appears and disappears too fast for me to read what's in it. 

this seems to indicate a wrong installation.

Better install by means of executing adagide_7.43_setup.exe 

> Running from a shell just gives the same result.

not needed: the usual mouse click on the icon is enough.


> point me to one that's easier to set up and use?

AdaGIDE runs extremely comfortable:
As an advanced user of AdaGIDE I need a minimum of entries:
mouse for activating the AdaGIDE-window.
[keyboard enter] for reloading source being updated by my pet text-editor
[keyboard f3]  compile and build
[keyboard f4]  execute

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[Paul]

Do you have the 2008 GPL version working from a command line (i.e. Windows 
command prompt)?   Open a command line window and just enter gnat.   It 
should output its version, copyright message and command line options.  You 
need to get the environment variables etc set up correctly before using any 
of the GPL IDEs.

Maybe I'm a masochist but if you want to learn Ada then using a simple text 
editor and compiling and linking from the command line is not a bad way to 
get moving.  Learning an IDE as well can be an added complexity.

Paul


"Peter Hermann" <spam@spam.de> wrote in message 
news:goj409$5l1$1@infosun2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de...
> Tim Rowe <spamtrap@tgrowe.plus.net> wrote:
>> I'm trying to set up Ada on my Windows XP Pro system so I can learn Ada.
>
> should be perfect under WinXP :
>
> first install an up-to-date gnat compiler
> (by means of executing e.g.
> gnat-gpl-2008-pentium-mingw32msv-bin.exe
> or similar )
>
>>   I've got the free version of GNAT, and would now like a development
>> environment.
>
> this should run, too.
>
>
>> I've tried AdaGIDE, but when I run it all that happens is a shell
>> console appears and disappears too fast for me to read what's in it.
>
> this seems to indicate a wrong installation.
>
> Better install by means of executing adagide_7.43_setup.exe
>
>> Running from a shell just gives the same result.
>
> not needed: the usual mouse click on the icon is enough.
>
>
>> point me to one that's easier to set up and use?
>
> AdaGIDE runs extremely comfortable:
> As an advanced user of AdaGIDE I need a minimum of entries:
> mouse for activating the AdaGIDE-window.
> [keyboard enter] for reloading source being updated by my pet text-editor
> [keyboard f3]  compile and build
> [keyboard f4]  execute
> 

Re: Problems setting up a (free) Ada development environment

[britt.snodgrass]

On Mar 4, 2:30 am, "Paul" <pcas1...@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> Do you have the 2008 GPL version working from a command line (i.e. Windows
> command prompt)?   Open a command line window and just enter gnat.   It
> should output its version, copyright message and command line options.  You
> need to get the environment variables etc set up correctly before using any
> of the GPL IDEs.

After trying "gnat" at the command line, next try "gnatls -v".  This
will give a full report of the GNAT version and associated search
paths.

- Britt