Re: Ann: AdaNetframework - Proof of cncept / alpha release

[Shark8 <onewingedshark@gmail.com>]

On Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 3:11:37 AM UTC-6, alby....@gmail.com wrote:
> Dear Ada Community
> 
> For those interested in Microsoft NetFramework, I have developed a set of
> bindings, runtime that allows native Ada applications built using GNAT to
> use the NetFramework. Conceptually this is very similar to "Embedinator 4000"
> developed by the "Mono" development team. Note this is not Ada compiled into
> CLR/VM bytecode, but a native (albeit for the moment) Windows x64 application that
> can make use of the functionality provided by the NetFramework.
> 
> Note this is a Proof of concept/alpha release, but it is functional
> 
> The git repo contains 3 branches, these being
> 
> 1) Master - a cutdown version of mscorlib (only includes subset of mscorlib)
> 2) System.dll - contains the core system bindings (core dependency)
> 3) System.Windows.forms.dll - contains winforms bindings
> 
> I suggest that if you want to build/test the repo, please start with the "Master"
> branch (which contains rudimentary test application (ie VS/GPR project) and then
> progress to System and finally System.Windows.Forms branch. Note that the 
> Winforms branch will take ~45 min to complete, so be patient (its a large lib!)
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1) Please use the latest version of VisualAda to build the projects. Their was
> a memory leak which may/will cause the final part of the build to fail
> 
> 2)I am intending to support NetCore going forward, so that Mac, Linux clients
> will be supported. But this may take some time, since the CLR hosting /interop
> Api's are very different from NetCore to NetFRamework
> 
> Git repo is https://github.com/Alex-Gamper/Ada-NetFramework.git
> 
> Feel free to raise questions / comments
> 
> Alex

So, this allows you to use DOTNET stuff in native applications; that's pretty nifty.
There was a GANT that targeted DOTNET directly, though the latest one is pretty old now (2014?) and there was a Ada spec generator where you could import DOTNET libraries for use in your Ada programs. [I have a copy of Delphi.NET, so of course I ran it over the Delphi DLLs. ;) And had some fun playing around with that.]