Re: How to leave .ali files in original library?

[Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org>]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:

> "Ludovic Brenta" <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> wrote in message 
> news:eebf3b04-6c56-4192-a0e9-958ac126e428@l2g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
>> localhost@example.org wrote on comp.lang.ada:
>>> Thanks...I would like to avoid using project files
>>
>> Why?
>
> I can't speak for the OP, but the obvious reason is that they cause vendor 
> lock-in. If any significant amount of your project's functionality is tied 
> up in .GPR files, then that functionality is not portable to another Ada 
> compiler. (.GPR files are not Ada!).

Technically, .gpr files are not tied to the GNAT compiler. You can
customize the gpr language to run other tools, in particular other Ada
compilers.

I use gpr files to run auto_text_io, for example. qtada uses it to run
amoc, a GUI preprocessor.

> That said, you practically will have to use some tool to get at least some 
> of that functionality for every Ada system -- but clearly the less you 
> depend on it the easier porting will be. (Complex project structures in 
> Janus/Ada aren't portable anywhere else, either.)

And using the vendor-provided project tool may be easier than adapting
gpr to the vendor compiler. But it is a tradeoff, not an absolute
impossibility. If you have experience adapting gpr, and don't yet know
the vendor tool, the tradeoff could favor using gpr instead of the
vendor tool.

gpr files are the best project tool I've seen. But I have not seen many.

-- 
-- Stephe