Re: gnatmake: "ada.numerics.real_arrays" is not a predefined library unit

[Samuel Tardieu <sam@rfc1149.net>]

>>>>> "Ludovic" == Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> writes:

Ludovic> Definitely; this is an area where all distributions would
Ludovic> benefit.  However, Debian is a bit peculiar since it patches
Ludovic> the library building process (in gcc/ada/Makefile.in) heavily
Ludovic> so as to build both the zero-cost and setjump/longjump
Ludovic> versions of the library.  So, if I produce a patch, someone
Ludovic> will have to adjust it for upstream GCC.

In fact, I've had a look and I'm not sure it is interesting to make a
shared version of libgnala at all. It contains mostly generics.

>> Concerning the distribution, why separate libgnala.so from libgnat?
>> You don't need a dependency on lapack/blas, only a "suggests" or
>> "recommends" if people want to build applications requiring annex g
>> support. As far as compiled applications are concerned, the
>> lapack/blas dependency will be recored as part of a regular Debian
>> dependency.

Ludovic> "Suggests" or "Recommends" is not good enough because it
Ludovic> would foil the automatic dependency management Debian is
Ludovic> renowned for.  The proper solution is to place libgnala.so in
Ludovic> a separate package (suggested or recommended by gnat-4.3) but
Ludovic> that Depends on (i.e. requires) lapack to be installed.

What is the difference between:

  - gnat bundles libgnala with gnat, and recommends lapack
  - gnat recommends libgnala, which depends on lapack (your recommendation)

?

In both configurations, someone wanting to use GNAT with Annex G will
have to install a package on which GNAT does not depend, be it
libgnala or lapack.

Ludovic> This way, if someone builds a package where they use Annex G,
Ludovic> their package will automatically depend on libgnala.so and,
Ludovic> indirectly, on lapack.  With your proposal, this would not
Ludovic> happen as lapack would be only recommended.

With my proposal, someone building a system using Annex G would get a
"depends" on lapack through the shared library. With yours, they would
get a "depends" on libgnala.so which has in turn a "depends" on
lapack.

I fail to see the difference, except maybe a matter of taste :)

Anyway, I've started investigating the "libgnalasup" issue. This
library is referenced by i-forbla.adb, but doesn't seem to be
distributed. Replacing it with "liblapack" and "libblas" may be
enough.

  Sam
-- 
Samuel Tardieu -- sam@rfc1149.net -- http://www.rfc1149.net/